


Blow Me A Kiss Before She Goes

by Rumor_tAdA



Category: My Chemical Romance
Genre: 7 minutes in heaven, Bob/OC, F/F, F/M, Frank/OC, Frerard, Gerard/Frank - Freeform, Love Triangle, M/M, One Shot, Ray/OC
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-10-01
Updated: 2016-05-05
Packaged: 2017-12-28 03:53:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 33,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/987356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rumor_tAdA/pseuds/Rumor_tAdA
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gerard finds himself in the company of new acquaintances in an unfamiliar house in a small closet with... Bob?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [pixiewayro](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pixiewayro/gifts).



I walked along the small dirt road, hands stuffed deep into my pockets. I was headed into the small park a few blocks from my house. I was bored as hell, which is probably strange, considering that I’m a nineteen-year-old guy and should probably have a job or be studying. I have a job. I’m in a band with a couple of my friends. We started the band about a year ago and only recently returned from touring.  
Ironic, isn’t it? When you’re on tour you miss home so much, but when you’re home, you miss touring. When we’re on tour we’re always busy, running somewhere whether it’s for an interview or a show, or you’re on your way to the next venue. You always have something to do, maybe that’s why I’m so bored at the moment. I don’t have anything to do. You’d think that I would spend some time with my friends and family.  
My friends and I are always on tour together so I think it’s only good that we take a break from each other. I would spend time with my family, but my parents work during the day. So, here I am, on my own, wandering through the park on a late summer afternoon.  
The park was quiet. Come to think of it, I’ve never seen anyone else other than myself here. That’s why I always came here to think or be alone or when I just didn’t have anything else to do. I reached a small clearing with a large tree in it. I smiled, remembering all the days I spent under it: writing songs or just playing with my guitar. Those were good times, carefree times before I finished high school and entered the grown-up life. What a wake-up call that was!  
I heard a rustling behind me and turned around to see a small figure emerge from the trees. It was a young girl and she was breathtaking to say the least. No, I’m not a pedophile; she looked at least high school. She had jet-black hair that only reached her neck. She wore a plaid red skirt, a large Avenged Sevenfold t-shirt and black ankle boots. As she drew near, I noticed that she had piercing green eyes that would make any guy weak at the knees and she also had two piercings in each ear.  
“Hey,” I said a little uncertainly.  
The girl turned to me and smiled a smile that seemed to light up the entire area. “Hi.”  
I watched her walk around the clearing and stop near me again.  
“What are you doing here all by yourself?” she asked curiously.  
“I could ask you the same thing,” I replied and she chuckled quietly.  
To my surprise I heard me introduce myself, “I’m Gerard.”  
“Ivaine,” she replied, “But everyone just calls me Ivy.”  
“That’s a cool name.”  
“Thanks.” Once again I was blessed with a bright smile.  
She seemed to do that a lot, but I didn’t mind. I could stare at her smile all day. Did that make me some kind of creep?  
“I see you like Avenged Sevenfold,” I noticed, pointing at her shirt.  
“I absolutely love them,” she grinned proudly. “They’re the best band ever.”  
I chuckled, “Yeah, I know. You don’t have to tell me that.”  
She looked at me interestedly.  
“I’m a huge fan myself,” I explained. “Them and bands like Iron Maiden and even a little Queen.”  
“Is that so?” Her eyes were sparkling with interest. “Well, I’m more of a Three Days Grace/Bullet For My Valentine fan myself, but you’ve got good taste. I’ll give you that.”  
“Yeah, I can see that. You have that rocker/metal girl look.”  
“Why thank you. I’ll take that as a compliment,” she grinned proudly.  
She sat down on the soft green grass under the tree and I joined her.  
“I’ve never seen you here before. Actually I’ve never seen anyone here before,” she said, pulling a blade of grass from the ground and absentmindedly tossing it aside.  
“Neither have I until today of course.”  
“Do you come here a lot?” she asked.  
“When I’m around,” I replied.  
“What do you mean?”  
“I’m in a band and we’re away on tour a lot,” I explained.  
Her face brightened up, “You’re in a band? That’s so cool! What are you guys called?”  
“Raygun Jones.”  
“Yeah, and what role do you play?” she wanted to know excitedly.  
“I’m the vocalist or at least trying to be. I also write a lot of the songs.”  
“Awesome! You guys make rock music, because you don’t really look like the metal type?” she said more than asked.  
I chuckled, “We’re not. I love listening to metal music, but we prefer making rock music. It’s a little lighter.”  
She started laughing, “I can’t exactly picture you screaming and growling on stage.”  
“I feel insulted. You don’t even know me and already you’ve made up your mind about me. For all you know I’m a real monster up on stage.”  
She giggled, “Yeah, I’m sure you are. So, how long have you guys been going?”  
“We started last year, so we’ve been going for about a year now. It’s just me and the three guys,” I explained. “We’re still looking for another guitarist, because I all but suck at it. However, no luck yet, but we’re making due without one.”  
“That’s cool.”  
“Hey, do you…” we both started and then laughed.  
“You first,” I said.  
“My brother and I are having like a party tonight. Would you like to come?” she asked.  
“Yeah, sure,” I replied.  
She jumped up and dusted herself off.  
“What were you going to say?” she asked.  
“I just wanted to know whether you would like to hang out tonight,” I replied.  
“Good,” she smiled and stuck out a hand to help me up.  
I gladly took it and pushed myself up with my other hand. We made our way back through the trees, along the dirt road.  
“Do you live near here?” she asked as we reached the road.  
“I live a few blocks away, and you?”  
“Me too. Actually a whole bunch of blocks,” she chuckled.  
“How old are you?” I asked a little curious, because she looked so young.  
“Seventeen,” she replied and I was surprised.  
“And your brother?” I continued.  
“He’s sixteen.”  
I nodded. She wasn’t joking when she said she lived a whole bunch of blocks away. We walked for almost half an hour before we reached her house. During the walk we talked about some of our interests and dislikes and we had quite a few things in common. She would laugh a lot, a beautiful clear sound. She walked through the large gates and up to the front door. The moment we neared the house, you could already hear loud music from inside. She headed right in and I followed close behind. When we entered the living room we found the party. There were only a few people and to my surprise I saw a band playing.  
“That’s my brother,” she said over the loud music, pointing to the guy at the front singing and playing guitar. The pride in her voice was impossible to miss.  
I nodded. He wasn’t super tall, had a mess of dark hair and a great voice. He was pretty awesome at playing the guitar and from what I could tell had way too much energy.  
“Do you want something to drink?” she asked.  
I said yes and followed her to the kitchen.  
“Hey, Mom,” she cheerily greeted a woman standing in the kitchen cooking.  
“Hey, Ivy. I started to wonder what happened to you,” her mom replied. “You told me you were going to the park hours ago and then it started getting dark.”  
“I headed over to the small park two miles or so from here and met Gerard,” she said and her mom turned to look at me.  
I took a step forward and introduced myself.  
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Gerard,” she smiled.  
I could see where Ivy got her looks from: her mom was pretty. Obviously the gorgeous genes flowed strong and freely in this family’s veins.  
“We just came to get something to drink,” Ivy told her mom.  
“Yes, that’s probably a good idea. The boys probably spiked all the drinks in the living room,” her mom said. “Actually I know they did.”  
I chuckled and thanked Ivy when she handed me a glass.  
“Well, let’s go join the party,” she suggested excitedly, walking ahead.  
Nothing changed about the party since we were in the room two minutes ago.  
“Your mom’s nice.”  
“Oh, thanks. Yeah, she’s a sweetheart,” Ivy agreed.  
“Does your brother have parties often, since your mom knows that they spike the drinks?”  
“Yeah, he’s quite popular and has parties every now and then. Sometimes they get out of hand and sometimes not. It all depends on the size. The only way my mom let him have one tonight is because he promised that it would only be a couple of friends. We actually just invited the people we’ve known for forever. My mom didn’t want a troublesome party without my dad here,” she explained.  
I was about to ask her where her dad was when her brother came over and gave her a hug. He wore black skinny jeans and a faded Misfits t-shirt and he had a lip piercing.  
“Hey, you two,” he grinned broadly.  
“Hey, Frank,” Ivy smiled. “This is Gerard. Gerard, this is my brother Frank.”  
“Hey,” he said still grinning and shaking my hand. His eyes gave me a quick once over and then all of a sudden I felt open, because he took his time to look me up and down again this time not seeming to miss anything. His hazel eyes travelled up my body at a leisurely pace until they finally reached my own hazel orbs. His eyes held a mischievous twinkle in them and as if to add emphasis to this idea, the corners of his mouth twitched up into a smirk.  
“Hey, Frank, you guys, come on! We’re going to play a game,” a girl called from across the room.  
“Come on,” Frank urged and we followed them over to the couches.  
“What are we playing?” he asked sitting down cross-legged on the floor.  
I noticed a girl with long black hair and bright red highlights sit down next to him. It was the girl I noticed playing guitar in the band earlier. She looked hardcore. I assumed that she was his girlfriend.  
“Seven minutes in heaven,” another girl replied wickedly, dropping down onto one of the couches. She had light blonde hair and wore a lot of eyeliner. Everyone around the room sat down and I followed suit not wanting to be the only weirdo standing around.  
“You all know the drill,” the girl with the red highlights said, reaching forward and placing a bottle in the middle of the circle of people and spinning it. “Everything goes. No incest though.”  
The guys chuckled and we all watched as the bottle came to a stop. It pointed to a guy with really puffy hair. He seemed like a quiet guy as I watched him awkwardly get to his feet and making his way to the foot of the stairs. Quiet chuckles seemed to spread like wildfire through the group of friends. The girl who spun the bottle jumped up and followed him with a playful smile. She seemed perfect for Frank just a lively and mischievous.  
“Be careful of that one,” a guy with blonde hair and sky blue eyes warned, pointing to the girl. “She tends to bite.”  
The boy with the afro shook his head and led the way upstairs.  
“That is Ray and Scarlet. Ray is Scarlet’s sister’s boyfriend,” Ivy explained to me and I got why everyone found it so funny. “Caitlyn is the one with the long black hair, wearing the shorts and t-shirt.”  
I looked over to the couch and saw her. She looked a lot like her sister, except that she didn’t have highlights. She had been the bands bassist.  
“The guy with the baby blue eyes is Scary’s boyfriend,” she continued to explain.  
“Scary?” I asked amused.  
She chuckled, “Yeah, it’s short for Scarlet. Everyone’s called her that since I can remember. She can be pretty scary sometimes too so I guess it’s fitting.”  
“I thought she was Frank’s girlfriend,” I threw into the conversation.  
Ivy cracked up, “No, but you would think that, wouldn’t you. They’re very close. No, Scary and Caitlyn are me and Frank’s cousins. Our mom’s are sisters.”  
I nodded, grasping what she said. The seven minutes were up and the two emerged from the closet. Everyone smiled at them.  
“He’s a good kisser,” I heard her tell her sister and I chuckled. I liked these kids.  
Caitlyn was next in line and coincidentally she ended up with Bob, her sister’s boyfriend.  
“Don’t enjoy it too much,” Scary teased her followed by a wink at Bob.  
“My turn,” Frank announced eagerly once the pair returned from wherever everyone disappeared to. He grabbed the bottle and it started spinning, going around and around until it finally stopped at me.  
“Yes!” Scarlet exclaimed excitedly. “Finally some real action.” She grabbed my arm and pulled me to my feet. “Now, Frank I don’t think I need to tell you this, but rules are rules. No cheating simply because you’re two guys. I want real stuff.”  
I noticed Frank roll his eyes at his cousin.  
“Like I’ve never played this game before,” he muttered. “Come on.”  
The teen turned on his heels and marched upstairs. I followed uncertainly, because I’m pretty certain that this wasn’t what either of us signed up for. Frank probably had some hot girlfriend and me… Well, that was a long story for another day. Frank stopped outside a closet and pulled the door open, waiting for me to go in first. As expected, and probably the whole point, the space was small, too small and the two of us practically stood chest to chest once we were both inside. It wasn’t like those big dirty closets they had at schools where janitors could store their brooms and stuff. This was a normal closet you used to hang coats in, supposedly, when your kids weren’t having extreme make-out sessions in it. Here I was, squashed inside with a guy I only knew by name who happened to be the brother of a really sweet girl I also only happened to meet a couple of hours ago. Of course this wasn’t awkward at all.  
I was pulled out of my reverie by Frank yelling loudly.  
“Scary, go back downstairs and make out with Bob or something! We don’t need an audience.”  
“How’d you…”  
“I know you. I know the rules and you know I’ll follow it. Now go join everyone else and leave us to it,” he told her and I heard her sigh loudly outside the door. How the hell did he know she was listening? “You’re ruining my fun,” he added slyly, winking at me. I grinned back and we listened to her fading footsteps.  
I nervously shifted my weight from one foot to the other.  
“You can relax. I’m not going to kiss you,” Frank stated probably sensing how awkward this was too. For a moment there I wondered how he could possibly miss it. At least I wasn’t alone in this situation. And yet, I couldn’t stop the slight sinking feeling of disappointment in my stomach.  
“What?” I heard myself say before I could even think to stop myself.  
Great, dude, just great. Frank giggled at my reaction.  
“Don’t look so disappointed. It’s nothing personal, I swear.” He smiled apologetically at me and it’s the first time he looked innocent. “It’s just that my sister quite obviously likes you a lot and I’m not that type of guy and…”  
“I’m a guy too,” I offered when he paused.  
His eyes met mine confused and then he chuckled quietly to himself.  
“You think I wouldn’t kiss you because you’re a guy?” He shook his head once again. “Scary and I have been playing this game since we could walk. You’d think that it would get old, but usually there are more people than just the few of us. Parties are awesome for this game and the pairings get quite interesting sometimes. Trust me I have no issues with kissing a guy.”  
Well, that confession caught me up short. Clearly I underestimated this kid, but then again his cousins did switch boyfriends. Those were the rules after all.  
I watched as Frank’s expression changed. I could only imagine what he was thinking. He was a good brother for keeping his distance from me, because his sister apparently liked me.  
“What are you thinking now?” I asked for the sake of my own peace of mind. I had no idea what he was capable of and being crammed into a closet with him had me at a bit of a disadvantage. Did I mention that I thought he was painfully good looking? Good genes. But what the fuck was I thinking? He was still in high school and I wasn’t which would make anything that could possibly happen between us illegal. Not that anything was going to happen though.  
His eyes narrowed and he took a step closer to me. Now we really were chest to chest. I would’ve taken a step back if that were possible, but I was cornered and could feel my heartbeat increasing.  
“I was thinking that rules are rules. Ivy can’t be mad at me for playing the game.” He lifted his head up and looked at me curiously. “Right?”  
I swallowed and shrugged noncommittally.  
“I guess.”  
“Gerard, right?”  
I opened my mouth to respond, but Frank’s lips covered mine greedily, his tongue instantly finding its way into my mouth while his hands roughly grabbed my head, fingers burying themselves in my hair. His sudden attack surprised me and my back hit the closet wall behind me. If it weren’t for his firm grip on my hair, I probably would’ve hit my head as well. Instead of focusing on how good he was at this I immediately responded by wrapping my arms around his small body and crushing him to my chest. I could feel him smiling against my lips and when I opened my eyes for a split second I caught him staring at me. Suddenly he pulled back, grinning broadly at me.  
“What I was going to say before you interrupted me was that I wanted to kiss you and probably wouldn’t stop when the seven minutes were up,” he breathed out still smiling widely.  
“Oh,” I said also grinning.  
“Yeah, why wouldn’t I want to make out with a really hot guy?” he wanted to know incredulously.  
I looked down smiling bashfully.  
“I can see why my sister likes you.”  
My head shot up.  
“I like you too.”  
It was such a simple confession and I didn’t want to make too much of it. Instead I wondered how much time has passed since we’ve been in here. I felt Frank’s hand take hold of mine and he entwined our fingers.  
“What do you say we make the most of the time that’s left? I would really hate to waste another second talking. We can do plenty of that once we get out of here, but once our time is up,” he stopped talking and tugged gently at my hand. “What do you say?”  
I quirked a suggestive eyebrow at him, smirking. My head ducked and my lips met his firmly. He pushed back up against me, wrapping his arms around my neck. It was a sloppy kiss, lips pressed against each other’s, teeth scraping together. My breath hitched when I felt Frank’s hands slipping under my shirt, one hand travelling up my torso and the other around to my back before sliding down and grabbing my ass.  
“Fuck,” I hissed and Frank’s lips met my jaw and finally my neck. The hand previously discovering my chest was withdrawn and came up to pull the collar of my black t-shirt away in order to give him access to the skin over my collarbone. His teeth nipped at the bone there and I made a low growling sound in the back of my throat.  
Suddenly a loud ringing sounded in the small space. Both Frank’s hands grabbed tightly onto my face before I could pull away and his kissed me fiercely for a few more moments before finally pulling away and gasping for air.  
“Fuck!”  
He killed the incessant beeping of his wrist watch and looked back at me with wide eyes. I was still trying to catch my own breath as he reached up and smoothed out his hair. I did the same also fixing my clothes.  
“Ready?” he asked, his hand grabbing the doorknob.  
I nodded and he pushed open the door.  
“Fucking Scary,” the short teen scowled when the door connected with a body.  
The girl with the red highlights jumped back guiltily, staring at us wide-eyed.  
“Are you kidding me? I thought I told you to leave.” The short teen was clearly exasperated as he glared at his cousin.  
The girl looked flustered for about half a second before she pulled herself together and grinned.  
“Frankie, Frankie, Frankie.” She made small tutting sounds. “I’m happy to know that you stick to the rules, but at what cost? What will Ivy have to say about all of this? You said it yourself, she obviously likes this kid.”  
“Hey!” I exclaimed indignantly. I was the only one here, except for Frank and Ivy’s mom, who wasn’t a kid. Frank also scowled, though I wasn’t sure whether it was at her name for me or because of what she said before it.  
“I was just playing by the rules. She can’t be mad at me for that,” he huffed shortly, crossing his arms over his chest. That didn’t smart at all. He was just playing by the rules. There was nothing more to it for him. Great. My shoulders sagged disappointedly. “Now are we going to stand here all night or are we going to return to the party?”  
“Please let us return to the party!” Scary grinned broadly and turned on her heel, skipping back to the where the rest of the party was. Frank beckoned me to walk first which I did, barely refraining from running after Scary if only to get away from him faster. I could feel my entire being burn with embarrassment. I actually thought he felt it too, but obviously I was wrong.  
“What took you so long?” the other twin demanded when we finally returned to the living room.  
“I forgot to set my timer,” Frank shrugged uncaringly, plopping down next to the guy with the afro.  
I could feel everyone’s eyes on me as I also retook my previous spot. The boy named Bob spun the bottle and conveniently it landed on me yet again.  
“Is there something we should know?” Caitlyn asked, eyeing me suspiciously. “Or is it just dumb luck that you get all the guys?”  
“Dumb luck I guess,” I muttered awkwardly as I got to my feet and followed Bob back to the closet.  
The small space seemed extra quiet as we stood there awkwardly just staring at each other. Finally, after about an eternity, he smiled at me.  
“So you and Frank, huh?”  
“What about us?” I asked, acting stupid.  
“You’re seriously going to tell me that the two of you were in this closet for seven minutes and he didn’t make one move?” He burst out laughing. “You forget that I know Frank and I saw him checking you out the second you came through the front door.”  
“What are you talking about? He was busy singing and playing when we came in…”  
“And staring after you as you two made your way to the kitchen. That kid’s hormone levels are sky high. Even if he wasn’t attracted to you, he’s Frank. He’ll never miss out on an opportunity to make out with someone.”  
I gulped guiltily.  
“So was he any good? I’d assume that he was. He’s probably had enough practice a little bi manwhore and all. What about you?”  
My cheeks flamed up in embarrassment. This was definitely the most embarrassing conversation I’ve ever had and Bob was so cool you would never guess that he was still in high school.  
“Don’t worry, I won’t tell.”  
“No need, Scary will tell everyone considering she listened in on us,” I scowled.  
He nodded in agreement. “She can be a handful at times,” he admitted. “I bet you had no idea what you were letting yourself in to when you walked home with Ivy.”  
I chuckled, shaking my head, “No, no idea. I’m not complaining. I’m actually having a good time despite being everyone’s new boy toy.”  
Bob cracked up loudly.  
“That’s a good one. I guess that’s why Ivy brought you along. You’re funny.”  
“Hey, give me back my boyfriend!” someone yelled outside the door.  
Bob grinned broadly at the sound of his girlfriend’s voice.  
“What do you say we rejoin the festivities? Sorry I didn’t give you seven minutes in heaven.”  
“Don’t worry about it,” I smiled in turn. “Frank took good care of me.”  
His hand came up to ruffle my hair.  
“There, now no one will be any wiser.”  
He opened the door and stepped out. He barely had time to blink before Scary was in his arms and kissing him.  
“Sorry, but he’s mine,” she told me with a smile wiping lipstick from his mouth. “I’m sure you’ll meet your better suited match at the next spin of the bottle.”  
“I’m really fine, thank you,” I chuckled, leading the way back.  
Everyone looked up when we entered and I saw Ivy’s eyes stretch a fraction of an inch at my disheveled appearance.  
“How was it by the way?” Scary asked playfully.  
“Now now, a gentleman doesn’t kiss and tell,” Bob lightly scolded her, winking playfully at me. I grinned broadly sitting back down. It would seem that I made a new friend.  
The game carried on for a few more spins and everyone eventually had a turn until finally it became uninteresting and the group found themselves en route to the kitchen in search of food. I was about half way to the kitchen when someone grabbed my hand and pulled me into a nearby closet. It was a lot smaller than the one we used upstairs. There was no light in here either and I had no idea who my abductor was.  
“Bob’s a good kisser is he?”  
It was Frank and my stomach turned uncomfortably.  
“Frank, I…”  
“I’m curious as to how he compared…”  
He stopped talking and I could hear him moving and then I could sense him only inches away from me.  
“I wonder…” Again he left his sentence hanging in the air.  
I gasped as I felt the palm of his hand press against my crotch.  
“Did the two of you have as much fun as you and I did?” he breathed in my ear, firmly grabbing hold of me. This time my head hit the wall with a thud and my eyes practically rolled back inside my head.  
“Should I step up my game?” he continued in a raspy whisper, gently biting down on the soft flesh in my neck, trailing sloppy kisses upward and scraping his teeth along my jaw. I shuddered, more like shivered with pleasure. I was definitely going to hell for this.  
“How about leaving my mark?” he murmured, dragging a finger from my chin down to the hollow at the bottom of my neck.  
Fuck it.  
I leaned forward, crashing my lips to his, desperate for some real contact. He pressed his body firmly against mine, grinding his hips against my own and I hissed loudly.  
“Fucking tease.”  
I could feel him smirk against my lips. He tugged roughly at my hair to the point where it hurt and yet at the same time it sent pleasure spreading throughout my body. He didn’t let go of my pants and by this point I was desperate for release.  
“Frank!? Gerard?”  
Frank’s body ripped away from mine and we stared wide-eyed into the sudden bright light flooding into the cramped space practically blinding us both. When my eyes finally adjusted, I realized that all his friends were standing in the doorway staring at us. Oh shit.  
“If I had a dollar for every time you stole a guy I liked from me,” Ivy said sharply.  
“You’ll have a dollar,” Frank responded with pure innocence.  
“That’s true,” his favorite cousin said, backing him up.  
“That’s not the point. I really like this one!” she exclaimed.  
“So do I!”  
It was like I wasn’t even there. I self-consciously tried to flatten my messy hair and touched a finger to my lips. They were somewhat sensitive.  
“Obviously.” Scary rolled her eyes.  
Frank and Ivy stared at each other for a while longer and a silent conversation seemed to pass between them. Ivy’s gaze shot to me for a split second before she sighed defeated.  
“Fine. Who wants hot coco?”  
The entire gang exclaimed in unison that they would love some.  
“Do you mind if I shut the door again?” Frank asked as if it was the most normal thing in the world to ask.  
“Yes, please!” Ray exclaimed, slamming the door shut and suddenly we were surrounded by darkness again.  
“You have no shame, do you?” I couldn’t help asking.  
“I’m Frank Iero, of course I don’t,” he snickered. “I won that little stare down back there now it’s time to claim my reward, don’t you think?”  
I grinned sheepishly even though he couldn’t see me. I could tell that he was doing the same. Before I had a chance to respond, he already pounced again and this time he had nothing holding him back.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You ask, I provide. ;P

_Hazel eyes… His soft black hair… Mmmm… Oh, and his lips…_ I smiled, remembering those lips pressed against mine. And then there was that cutest of laughs.  
Why did I have to wake up? I could stay in bed all day long just thinking about… My eyes opened and I nearly had a heart attack when I saw my sister standing in front of me.Instinctively, I rolled away from her with wide eyes.

“Ivy, what the hell?”

“Who were you dreaming about?” she asked, smiling sweetly.

My heart rate slowed back down and I sat up, watching her uncomprehendingly. 

“I saw you smiling in your sleep and I want to know who you were dreaming about. I hope it was Lisa.”

“Who?” My mind was still sleep befuddled.

“You know Lisa, your girlfriend. She called earlier.”

_Oh crap. Lisa._

“But you were still fast asleep having had a busy night and all,” she continued completely innocently, reminding me of my little rendezvous with, Gerard was it, the night before.

“Shit, where’s my phone?”

Ivy shrugged, stepping back and watching me reach for the small object lying on my bedside table.

“Fuck!” I swore under my breath.

“What is it?”

“The stupid battery is made of chocolate,” I growled annoyed, showing her my dead phone.

“Relax, you can just call her from the house phone,” Ivy suggested helpfully.

“Yeah, so you can listen to our conversation?” I grumbled irritably. My fucking phone was dead and I couldn’t call Gerard without it, because his number was saved in my dead phone’s memory. I didn’t know it and thus the landline wasn’t going to be of any use to me. Of course I couldn’t exactly tell Ivy this.

“Yes, Frank that’s exactly it,” she responded unimpressed by my answer. “Because I do it all the time.”

I winced slightly, realizing that I might have misplaced my irritation.

“Sorry. Can I please borrow your charger?”

“Fine,” she muttered, turning on her heel and leaving my room.

_Way to start the day, Frank. Piss off your sister, because that’s going to end so well._

“Thanks,” I smiled gratefully at her, hoping to soften her a little bit.

She flashed me a smile that clearly told me that it wasn’t going to be so easy and I ducked my head guiltily. Oh well, she’ll come around again eventually. All I had to do was refrain from pushing anymore wrong buttons for the rest of the day, because that was going to be so easy. Big sisters could be so mean sometimes.

As soon as she was gone from my room, I plugged in the phone charger and turned it on. Fortunately there was only one message from Lisa.

_‘Hey, babe. Did you have fun last night?’_

I quickly typed in a response to tell her that it was fun and that Scary, as usual, had worked on my nerves. I then proceeded to search my contacts for Gerard’s number and hit the call button. It rang once, twice…

“Hello?”

“Gerard, hey, it’s Frank.”

“Hello there. How are you this morning?” 

I grin stupidly. “Never better. How about you?”

“I’ll say it’s a beautiful day,” he responded and somehow, I’m not sure how, I could tell that he was also smiling.

“Are we still on for today?” I asked almost anxiously. I felt like a stupid fucking high school girl. The high school part was of course true, but I was in no way a fucking girl. My parents already had one daughter too many in my opinion sometimes. They didn’t need a second one.

“Eleven o’clock, right?”

I nod and then face palm as soon as I realize that he can’t, obviously, see me.

“Yes, eleven o’clock at the arcade.”

“It’s a date.”

“Great!” I exclaimed excitedly. “See you then.”

“Bye, Frank.”

I ended the call and just sat in my bed, grinning like a fool for at least ten minutes until Ivy’s head popped around the door again.

“Sometimes I worry about you, Frank,” she said seriously. “What is wrong with your face?”

I grabbed the pillow nearest to me and threw it at her. “Shut up.”

She walked away, laughing. That was my cue to finally get my lazy ass out of bed, seeing that it was already nine. 

The shower water was nice and hot and left my skin feeling almost tingly by the time I finally got out. I probably put on all of the clothes in my closet before finally settling on my signature black skinny jeans. I know, how stereotypical could you get? I’d like to think my favorite Misfits T-shirt made me unique, though. Then again, fuck what people thought. It wasn’t about being cliché. This was just my scene. I was comfortable in it and damn it, I looked good. I took extra care in styling my hair that day, keeping in mind that I was going to see Gee later. _That’s a cute nickname. Yes, I’ll call him Gee from now on._ I rummaged through the bathroom cabinet only to find that my eyeliner was missing.

“Ivy!” Great. “Where’s my eyeliner?”

“Sorry!” I heard her yell from her room. “I didn’t have anymore and I forgot to return yours after using it.” Her voice grew louder as she neared the bathroom. “Here you go… Ooh, someone’s going through a lot of trouble to look good. Who are you trying to impress?”

“No one,” I said, taking the black pencil from her. “I always look this good.”

“No,” she said, looking at me suspiciously. “No, there’s definitely something different.”

“Your imagination is running wild again,” I told her, carefully applying kohl to my eyes. “Maybe I used more hair gel than usual.”

Ivy rolled her eyes. “Of course that’s it. Anyway, Mom and I are heading to the stores. We probably won’t be long.”

“That’s fine,” I muttered absentmindedly, concentrating on not screwing up my entire face.

“Later, loser.”

I didn’t even hear her. It’s been forever since it took me two hours to get ready. Scratch that, I’ve _never_ taken that long. I knew it; I was turning into a girl simply because I liked some guy I just met. _Perfect_.

I left the house half an hour later and showed up at the arcade before Gerard did. The place was bustling with teenagers, it being a Saturday and all. I checked my watch and it was eleven. No Gerard. _He was going to stand me up_ , I thought paranoid for some unexplainable reason. I was simply his little bit of fun.

 _Stop being such a girl. He was going to show up and if he didn’t, then that was his loss_. I looked around the place and saw him standing a few feet away, watching me. I put on my cool and walked over to him.

“Hey, how long have you been standing here?”

“Long enough,” he replied, smiling broadly at me.

I was supposed to be the smooth motherfucker and yet it seemed like the roles from the night before had reversed.

“Are you ready to spend an entire day with me?” I asked him jokingly.

Gerard chuckled lightly, “Yes, Frank. I think I’m more than capable of handling you. I spent a lot of time in small spaces with you and I survived that. I think I’ll be fine.”

I grin happily at his response, remembering perfectly all the fun we had in the closets the previous night.

“If you became too much of the pain in the ass, I would have enough room and opportunity to make a run for it in any case,” he teased me with a wink.

“I’m not letting you go anywhere,” I stated firmly, grabbing his hand and entwining our fingers. I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket, but chose to ignore it. All my attention was devoted to Gerard right now.

“Hello,” he smiled down at me and I lifted myself up on my toes to plant a quick kiss on his lips. “Hello to you.”

He laughed. “Come on, Frank.” He dragged me off to wherever. I couldn’t care less about where we were going. I would be on cloud nine if it was a closet, but anywhere else would also suffice as long as it was with him.  
  
*  
  
“Dude, I totally schooled you!”

“I’m not in high school anymore. I don’t get to spend my days in the arcade playing air hockey anymore,” Gerard retorted.

We were coming from the arcade where we spent most of our morning and all afternoon playing whatever games caught our attention, the last one having been air hockey, and I won.

“That’s a low blow,” I told him, making a face like the mature guy I am.

He shrugged. “It’s the truth.”

“Come on, Gee. Just admit that you lost because you suck at air hockey.” I was in an extremely good mood. I had a great time all day. He wasn’t just hot as hell; he was actually fun to hang out with as well. He was an all-in-one package. Bonus!

“Gee?” he questioned, tilting his head to the side and thinking about the name. “My brother calls me Gee,” he smiled.

“I think it suits you,” I said, giving his hand a squeeze. “I have band practice in an hour. Wanna come and see?”

Gee nodded eagerly, “Yes, that would be great.”

“Frank!” I let go of Gerard’s hand the second the voice reached my ears and I could’ve sworn that my heart was trying to break out of my ribcage. I didn’t blame it. If I could escape right now, I would too.

I turned around to see a girl with the darkest chocolate colored hair and the most beautiful green eyes approaching us, followed by her two best friends, Mia and Karen.

“Lisa.” It wasn’t difficult to smile when I saw her and as always I did. The only difference this time was that Gee was standing next to me and obviously wondering who the newcomers were.

“Hey, babe,” Lisa greeted me brightly, leaning forward and kissing me. “I was wondering what happened to you. I sent you a text message earlier to tell you that we were coming here, but you never replied.”

That’s what happened when you didn’t read your messages. You got busted. I pulled out my phone and read the traitor message.

“I’m sorry. My phone has been doing the whole dead-battery-thing lately. I need to get a new one,” I lied smoothly, though I could feel my skin crawl.

Someone cleared their throat and I almost regretfully remembered Gerard still standing next to me. I looked at him and saw the questions in his eyes.

“Hi, I’m Lisa,” the petite brunette introduced herself with a smile. She was always going to be the nicest girl in the world.

“This is Gerard,” I said reluctantly. “Gerard,” I deliberately neglected to use his new, or apparently not so new, nickname. “This is Lisa… my girlfriend.”


	3. Chapter 3

“I know you’re there so you might as well answer the phone.” I laid on the couch right next to the house phone for probably the millionth time in less than a week. Gerard refused to talk to me ever since he met Lisa. I didn’t blame him. “Come on, Gee. You can’t stay mad at me forever…” Or maybe he could. I definitely screwed up badly. “All I need is a chance to explain. I didn’t mean for any of this to happen.” I didn’t know what more to say. I’ve said anything I possibly could over the last couple of days, but he still wouldn’t pick up the phone. “I’ve been groveling for three days. I’m kind of tired of hearing my own voice…”

“You know, you are in no position to be a little bitch right now. You’re tired of hearing your own voice? Imagine how I must feel!” he snapped.

I jumped up, happy to finally get a response from him. Granted, it’s not exactly the response that I was hoping for, but at least I was making progress.

“Gerard.”

“What?”

“You answered the phone. I’ve been calling and calling.”

“I know. Your parents will be thrilled by the phone bill at the end of the month.”

I winced, realizing that he was probably right. My parents were going to kill me. Then again, that didn’t really matter right now.

I started pacing. “Are you okay?”

“Peachy,” he grumbled. “What do you think? No, I’m not okay, Frank. You’re a liar.”

“I was going to tell you…”

“When?? After I met your girlfriend??” he cried in outrage. “I stood there like an idiot while you and your girlfriend bonded over lost time.”

“It wasn’t supposed to go down like that. I wanted us to have a good time before I told you. I was going to tell you. I swear.”

“Great fucking job you did there,” he muttered sarcastically. “It wouldn’t have made a difference anyway. You used me. You cheated on your girlfriend and you used me to do it.” I could tell that he was upset. Of course he was, but I had a comeback.

“I don’t get what the big issue is. I didn’t cheat on her. It was Seven Minutes in Heaven. It’s just a game.” I pulled the phone away, staring at it in horror. Why would I say that? My stupid big mouth! Now would be a great time for the world to open up and swallow me. That was probably the worst thing I ever could have said. “Gee, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for it to come out like that. That’s not at all what I meant,” I hurriedly tried to explain.

“I know exactly what you meant, Frank. I realized it the second your girlfriend showed up. I guess this is thanks for a good time?”

This wasn’t a question I realized as soon as he hung up on me. Fuck. I immediately hit redial.

“What do you want?”

“To talk to you.”

“I have nothing more to say to you.”

“Gerard…” He had already hung up on me again. “Son of a bitch,” I muttered under my breath. 

“Why won’t you listen to me?” I demanded the second he answered again.

“Because I’m not going to believe anything that comes from your mouth,” he replied coolly.

“You should…”

“No, you’re wrong, I shouldn’t do anything.”

“I’m sorry!” I exclaimed somewhere between angry at myself and annoyed at him.

“I’m sorry you’re sorry.”

I let out a cry of frustration.

“How fucking old are you?”

“Goodbye, Frank. I’m going to hang up again now.”

“Don’t you dare!” He dared. I threw the phone down on the couch. I wasn’t going to beg any longer. If he wanted to be mad at me then so be it.

“What is all the commotion about?” my mother asked coming into the living and looking at me questioningly.

I ducked my head guiltily, “Nothing, Mom.”

“It didn’t sound like nothing. Are you and Lisa having problems?”

I lowered my head shamefully, because no, Lisa and I weren’t having problems even though we should have been. After all, I cheated on her. It wasn’t even because I made out with Gerard in a closet. It was Seven Minutes in Heaven, it really was just a game. Lisa knew that and understood, seeing as that was how we first met.

I was at a friend’s party. Lisa was there with her best friend Mia, who just happened to be the cousin of the host. It was a big one, the game. Everyone at the party played along and the craziest pairs were shoved into a closet together. Lisa sat at the other end of the circle, not directly across from me, but I instantly noticed her. She was beautiful with her heart-shaped face surrounded by curtains of dark hair. I couldn’t believe my eyes. She caught me staring several times and eventually it became a private little game between the two of us. Suave was my middle name and I would take to winking at her or giving her my best seductive smile. Her only response would be to laugh which of course encouraged me to continue with my actions. After several turns, and quite a few hot make out sessions on my part, finally, she spun the bottle and it landed on me. So we went upstairs, found a room, and didn’t return to the party. We talked and found out that we didn’t actually have much in common aside from our taste in movies. We both liked movies with a war theme like Troy, The Patriot or even Gladiator. The only thing that was important to me was that I liked her and she liked me.

When Gerard walked through our front door with my sister, it was almost like déjà vu. I couldn’t keep my eyes off of the stunning creature. Naturally, Seven Minutes in Heaven started and I ended up in a closet with him.

Lisa knew how the game worked and wouldn’t take my time in the closet with Gerard too seriously, ignoring the extra half hour I spent in there with him. My infidelity stemmed from the fact that Gee and I exchanged numbers at the end of the night and especially from my excitement to see him again the next day.

She deserved better than that. I should tell her what happened.

“Frank?”

My head shot up and I remembered that my mom was waiting for me to respond to her question.

“No,” I shook my head. “We’re not fighting.”

“Are you sure?”

I nodded, “Yeah, Mom. We’re fine.” I managed a smile.

“Okay, well. I hope you sort out whatever’s wrong.” With that, she left the room allowing me to fall down on the couch with a deep sigh.

What the hell was I going to do? I couldn’t tell Lisa the truth. She would dump my sorry ass. On the other hand, if I didn’t break up with her, Gerard wouldn’t give me the time of day. This was going to be an easy decision to make, not.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this update took forever!

Ivy’s POV  
  
I checked my appearance in the mirror one last time and grabbed my jacket off the bed before heading out the door. My brother was sitting on the living room couch staring at his phone when I entered the room.  
  
“I’m heading out for a little while. Tell Mom I’ll be home in time for dinner.”  
  
He didn’t respond, just kept staring at his phone. I had no idea what was wrong with him. He never acted like this. Maybe he hit his head and lost his marbles.  
  
I opened the door to head out when Frank stopped me.  
  
“Hey, Ivy, wait up!” he called, jumping up from the couch and hurrying over to me. “Are you going to meet Gerard?” he asked hopefully.  
  
My curiosity was peaked. “No. Why would I be meeting Gerard?”  
  
Frank shrugged. “No reason. I just thought that you guys were friends after Friday.”  
  
“Okay, but if I were, then what?”  
  
Frank looked thoughtful for a second and then shook his head. “Nothing. Just curious. Have fun doing whatever it is you’re going to do.” He turned his back on me, walking in the direction of the hallway, probably going to his room. Yes, something was definitely up with my brother.  
  
It was a rare sunny day as I made my way to the park. The twenty minute walk seemed to fly by. As I walked, I took in all my surroundings, the cars driving by, people tending their gardens, here and there kids riding around on their bikes. All in all, it was quite busy for this particular neighborhood.  
  
Upon reaching my spot in the park, I found that I would have company while there.  
  
“Gerard, hey! This is a surprise. I didn’t expect to see you here.”  
  
The man with the silky black hair hopped off the fallen tree he’d been sitting on and approached me. Damn it, who was I to play it cool? I had the biggest crush on this guy. It was no wonder either as I watched him walk towards me with smooth strides, that gorgeous face and a slightly lopsided smile, showing off his white baby teeth. Damn Frank for stealing all his attention Friday night.  
  
“Hey, Ivy,” he smiled, giving me a hug in greeting. “How have you been?”  
  
I was still a little thrown by his surprise appearance in the park, but then again, this was where we met. Maybe I shouldn’t be all that surprised.  
  
“I’m always good, thank you very much. How about you?”  
  
He looked up and into the distance before answering. “I’m good.”  
  
“Liar,” I accused, playfully shoving him.  
  
The male chuckled, leading me back to the tree where we both sat down.  
  
“What brings you here?”  
  
“I’m doing absolutely nothing as it suits a summer vacation,” I informed him, swinging my legs forwards and backwards.  
  
“Summer vacations were the best part of school,” he stated with a nod. “How long before school starts again?”  
  
“About three weeks at which point I will be a senior. I still can’t believe I only have one year of school left before I have to move out and fend for myself.”  
  
“Moving out isn’t so bad,” he assured me. “I mean, aside from the fending for yourself part, leaving home is great. You get to come and go as you please and you can pretty much do whatever you want.”  
  
“And I won’t have to live with my brother anymore.”  
  
“That’s the biggest bonus of it all.”  
  
“Sure,” I said in disbelief. “I’m sure you wouldn’t mind having to live with him.”  
  
“No thank you. I have better things to do with my time.”  
  
I looked at him questioningly and Gerard rolled his eyes. “What the fuck is wrong with your brother?”  
  
“The better question would be what is not wrong with Frank,” I joked.  
  
“I’m serious,” Gerard said looking at me.  
  
“What happened between the two of you?”  
  
“Nothing.” He looked away from me. “I just had the honor of meeting Lisa.”  
  
“Oh.” My eyes grew wide. “Frank didn’t tell you about her?”  
  
“No, he didn’t tell me about her!” he exclaimed upset. “No, Frank took my number and made plans to meet up on Saturday and spend some time together.”  
  
“You did what?” This was definitely news to me.  
  
“Yes, and Frank was all flirty the entire time, holding my hand and stealing kisses, right up until Lisa and her friends showed up. Surprise! Frank couldn’t even grow the balls to introduce us.”  
  
“Now you’re mad at him?” I guessed. “No wonder Frank’s been acting weird all week.”  
  
“He has?”  
  
“Yeah. No wonder he wanted to know if I was coming to meet you.”  
  
Gerard looked confused. “Why should he care? He has a girlfriend.”  
  
I shrugged. How was I supposed to know what was going on inside my little brother’s twisted mind. That’s one place I dared not go.  
  
“So Frank and Lisa…” he started and I could tell that he wanted to know about their relationship and I hated to have to burst his bubble.  
  
“I’m sorry, but I wouldn’t get my hopes up if I were you,” I told him honestly. “Lisa wasn’t easy to get…”  
  
“And I was, because I played along with the stupid game?” Gerard asked indignantly.  
  
“No, that’s not what I meant. It’s just that my brother went through a lot of shit for her. You’ve seen our style, my brother and I aren’t exactly part of the cool crowd.”  
  
“Lisa is?”  
  
“No, but she was dating a popular when she met my brother. He found out that Frank liked Lisa and although she could keep her boyfriend away from Frank, she couldn’t control his friends who took to picking on him on a daily basis. Eventually Lisa got sick and tired of it and broke up with the jerk. Right after Lisa and Frank finally became a couple, he got beaten up pretty badly. I’ve never seen him like that and I would never want to again. Fortunately she somehow got the three bullies expelled and now the two of them are able to be happily in love without anyone bothering them.”  
  
“In other words, he’s crazy about her?”  
  
I nodded in confirmation. “I’m sorry.”  
  
“What do you suggest I do? Do I just forgive him for leading me on?”  
  
“I can’t tell you what to do, Gerard, but I would suggest that you at least give a possible friendship between you guys a chance. My brother doesn’t always like a lot of people. You saw the people at our little party the other night. That’s the total of my brother’s friends and yet somehow you got accepted right off the bat. I honestly think that you and Frank would be really good friends and aside from his sometimes a-holish behavior, he’s a good and loyal kid.”  
  
He sighed dramatically. “Okay, fine. I’ll talk to him.”  
  
This made me smile. “You can walk home with me if you’d like? Maybe you two can sort this out.”  
  
“No, some other time maybe.”  
  
“The band is having practice tomorrow at four. You’re welcome to pop in then,” I suggested another time.  
  
“I think I’ll do that, but until then, you and I have a bit of hanging out of our own to do. I stupidly spent more time with Frank Friday night and I owe you.”  
  
I smiled happily at the idea of spending more time with him. “Yes, you do mister.” I bumped his shoulder with mine.  
  
Gerard jumped of the fallen tree and grabbed my waist to lift me off as well. “Good. We can do anything you want. My treat.”  
  
My stomach turned pleasantly when he held me. I really wanted to giggle right then and there. Why did I have to have a crush on a boy who would for very obvious reasons, such as him being gay, never be interested in me?  
  
“Why don’t we stay here and talk, you know, get to know each other a little better?” I suggested hopefully since that’s all I really wanted to do.  
  
“Okay,” Gerard nodded. “I’m good with that idea.”  
  
We plopped down alongside on the grass and started sharing our stories. I told Gerard about my dad being in a band and being on the road a lot and that that’s why he wasn’t home much. In turn he told me about his parents, his brother, Mikey, and his grandmother, Elena. I trusted him enough to tell him about my drug addiction a while ago, but assured him that I was clean now. Choose your friends wisely. Gerard confessed that the reason he was back was because his band had failed and he was currently jobless and practically broke. It was amazing how open we were during the rest of the conversation. It was like we’d known each other forever.  
Another confession from his side was that he was really into my brother, big surprise there, and that he was really disappointed with how things turned out. However, Lisa seemed very nice and he was glad if they were happy together. I didn’t believe the last part all too much, but whatever. I wasn’t about to ruin the moment.  
  
We stopped by the arcade to play some games and have general fun and by the time I got home, it was already dark.  
  
“Where were you all day?” Frank wanted to know from the couch where he was watching some crime series on television.  
  
“Out,” I replied, taking off my jacket.  
  
“Duh!” He rolled his eyes.  
  
I walked over and stopped in front of him with my hands on my hips. “I talked to Gerard for you. He’s coming to your bad practice tomorrow.”  
  
“He is?” Frank sat up in one swift movement and stared at me with wide eyes. “But wait, how did you know?”  
  
“Gerard told me of course.”  
  
“And you’re not mad at me?”  
  
“Yes, Frank I am actually mad at you. What you did was really low and wrong.”  
  
“I know,” he admitted. “I made a mistake, but I swear I just want to be friends with Gerard. He’s yours if you want him.”  
  
I sighed deeply. “Frank, that’s not even what this is about. This is about you having an amazing girlfriend that you will lose if you pursue this any further.”  
  
“I know. I know.”  
  
“Do you?” he nodded vigorously. “Good. Tell Mom I’m not hungry. I’m going to bed.”  
  
With that I left and went upstairs to my bedroom. It’s been a while since I listened to Guns & Roses so I popped in their CD and fell down on the bed where I continued to savor the beautiful music.


	5. Chapter 5

We were practically done setting up our band’s equipment in the garage when Gerard came in through the door, causing my insides to light up with glee. I’d been starting to worry that he wasn’t going to show up. I hurried over to him and grabbed his wrist.  
  
“You came.” I said, giving him an all out grin.  
  
“I told Ivy I would.”  
  
That was a disappointment. It would seem that he was still mad at me and that the only reason he was here was because of Ivy.  
  
I nodded. “I’m glad you’re here.”  
  
Gerard slightly sighed. “Well, you guys didn’t seem to suck the first time I heard you. I thought I would come give you another listen. Plus, you also invited me to check you out.” I couldn’t help grinning at his choice of words. He was more than welcome to check me out any time he wanted. I don’t want his gorgeous hazel eyes focused on anything or anyone other than me. “This is my brother Mikey.” He motioned to a skinny kid standing next to him. He couldn’t have been older than me. I hadn’t even noticed him until Gerard directed my attention to him.  
  
“Hey, I’m Frank,” I smiled at him. “It’s nice to meet you,” I said sincerely.  
  
“Hey,” Mikey smiled back. “My brother says you guys are good.”  
  
“He did?”  
  
“Wipe the cocky smirk off your face, Frank,” Gee chuckled. “I didn’t have much to go on when I told my brother about you. I might have been mistaken.”  
  
I childishly stuck my tongue out at him, relieved that the tension between us had disappeared. “I’ll show you how good we are. Make yourselves at home.” I pointed at the couch, walking over to my guitar and slinging it across my shoulders. Everyone else exchanged greetings with the Way brothers and of course Scary couldn’t resist the urge to make a comment about me and Gerard. Sometimes I really wished I could duct tape her mouth shut.  
  
Everyone took their places behind their instruments and I stepped over to the mic. My sister waltzed into the room and plopped down on the couch next to Gerard, the two starting to talk animatedly. We kicked off with our first song, practicing several more before taking a short break. Ivy and the guys headed for the kitchen to get drinks and snacks while Mikey got into a conversation with Scary about playing bass. I couldn’t help thinking that they were the most unlikely pair to get along.  
  
The fact that everyone else was busy doing their own thing, gave me the opportunity to talk to Gerard. I sat down next to him, making sure not to make any physical contact. This was for various reasons. I didn’t need the distraction or the temptation. Also, I didn’t want him to be uncomfortable or feel awkward.  
  
“Hey,” I greeted him quietly. “Are you enjoying the show?”  
  
“You’re right. You guys don’t completely suck,” he teased me with a smile.  
  
“You better watch what you say to me. Scary might kick your ass,” I retorted playfully.  
  
He shrugged it off. “I’m not scared of a girl.”  
  
“You’re stupid.” We both chuckle lightly at the direction our conversation chose and it felt good. We had something between us. I wasn’t sure what it was, but we weren’t meant to be fighting. This was how it was supposed to be. Yes, we were supposed to be best friends. I realized that I had a girlfriend and that my interest in Gerard probably didn’t stretch beyond physical attraction. I wasn’t going to screw anything up this time.   
  
“Gee, I’m sorry for not telling you about Lisa. I was an idiot. I didn’t mean to lead you on or anything,” I apologized. “I realize that that was probably exactly what I did, but I… I don’t know. Maybe I had a momentary crush on you or something and I was so excited to see you again that I completely forgot about Lisa in the process. I mean, we had fun that day, didn’t we?”  
  
He seemed to consider it for a moment before nodding. “We did have a lot of fun.”  
  
He was so adorable that I had to resist the urge to kiss him. So much for avoiding temptation. “Friends?” I checked to be certain.  
  
“Of course,” he smiled back at me.  
  
The door opened and Lisa came in.   
  
“Hey you two,” she smiled brightly as soon as she saw us. She came over and leaned down to give me a quick kiss. “Hey, Gerard.”  
  
“Hey, Lisa. How are you?”  
  
“I’m always good and you?”  
  
“I never complain.” I watched the interaction between the two of them not sure how to feel about it. I was happy that they  got along, but I felt bad for Gee having to deal with this and over the fact that Lisa had no idea what was going on.  
  
Ivy and everyone else returned at that moment with trays of sustenance. It was perfect timing otherwise things may have gotten awkward again. Everyone pigged out on chips and soda for a while before we returned to practicing.  
  
We were back in full motion and practice was going well. Gerard was kind of sandwiched on the couch between my sister and Lisa. Thankfully, he and Lisa seemed to be getting along well. On the downside, he seemed to be getting along with my sister a little too well. The pair were laughing and goofing around the entire time. What was he doing? I thought he was supposed to be gay and here he was being very cozy with Ivy. It didn’t make any sense, unless he wanted to make me jealous which would be very childish, regardless of how successful the plan was. My stomach turned uncomfortably as I watched them.  
  
I knew my girlfriend was sitting right there next to them, but I couldn’t help the jealousy washing over me in waves. Why couldn’t things between me and Gerard be that easy and playful? Oh, right, it had been until he found out I had a girlfriend. What if he and Ivy got together? That would most definitely suck. I don’t want to have to put up with that. Ivy wouldn’t do that to me though, would she? She won’t be doing anything wrong, though, since I have a girlfriend. After all, I chose Lisa over Gerard. Ugh, this was so confusing!  
  
“Frank!”  
  
I blinked, realizing that everyone was staring at me, including Ivy and Gerard.  
  
“What?” I asked, turning to look at Scary who was the one who had spoken my name.  
  
“You made a mistake and when all of us stopped, you just kept on playing,” she explained, looking at me questioningly.  
  
“Sorry, I must have spaced out.” Well, this definitely wasn’t awkward at all. Shit. How could I have gotten so distracted over nothing? Crap, they’re still staring at me. “Uhm, are we going from the beginning again?”  
  
Scary shook her head, clearly wondering what was going on, but thankfully not asking. How was I going to explain that I was jealous of Ivy and Gerard without getting Lisa involved? Nope, that knowledge was for me only.  
  
“From the top,” she agreed and the drums started anew.  
  
I made sure to concentrate this time around and practice finished without a hitch. Scary and Caitlyn had to go home and they took their boyfriends with them, leaving only Lisa, the Way brothers and me and Ivy.  
  
“We should also be heading home,” Gee announced.  
  
“It’s still early. You don’t have to leave yet,” Ivy told him and I could clearly see the hopefulness in her eyes. _Damn it!_  
  
I saw Gerard shift awkwardly. “We only came to see the practice.”  
  
“We promised our mom we’d be home for dinner,” Mikey hurriedly added and I somehow knew he was lying, covering up whatever is going on with his brother.  
  
Ivy was disappointed by this. “Okay, in that case, tell your mom I said hi.”  
  
Gerard offered her a smile. “I will, thanks.”  
  
The Ways said their goodbyes and headed down the street. I also turned and walked back into the house, having to grow accustomed to the sudden quiet.  
  
“Are you okay, Frank?” Lisa asked, taking a hold of my hand.  
  
“Of course,” I grinned at her. We were good and Gerard was willing to give our friendship a go. Things were great.


	6. Chapter 6

**Gerard’s POV**  
  
 _Three weeks later…_  
  
You wouldn’t think that so much could happen in only three weeks, but I was certainly shown otherwise. First of all, my band officially split up, meaning that I was now a couch potato at my parents’ house. This wasn’t exactly true. I spent most of my time with Ivy, but since the summer vacation was over in another day, I would be stuck with absolutely nothing to do, which sucked. Secondly, I seemed to be Frank’s new best friend. Fine, I’ll admit that aside from Ivy, he was my best friend too. Since we agreed to stick to simply being friends, we’ve been getting along extremely well, too well actually. All the time I didn’t spend with Ivy, I spent with him. Honestly, I loved Ivy to hell and back, but any time I spent with Frank was just so much more special. Maybe this was due to the fact that I still had the world’s biggest crush on her brother. How couldn’t I? Ignoring his lies when we first met, he was great. He may have been young, but he was very intelligent. He had the most adorable laugh and he could be quite the little shit, but it was also very endearing. You had to love him exactly the way he was. Above all that, he was gorgeous.  
  
Unfortunately, he still had a girlfriend. I’ve gotten to know Lisa during all this time as well and I could definitely see why Frank was smitten with her. She was the nicest person I’ve ever met without being annoyingly so and she loved Frank right back. You could see it in the way they interacted. I never stood a chance with him against her. This knowledge killed me. I never said anything, but I kept torturing myself by spending time with them and having to see them together. Maybe I hoped it would help me get over him. I couldn’t even believe how I got so stuck on him after seven damn minutes in a fucking closet. It was ridiculous to say the least. He seemed to have forgotten about that and he was oblivious to everything I felt when I was around him and around them. He knew almost everything about me except that. It was for the best. I didn’t have to ruin our friendship and his relationship, especially after he chose her.  
  
Maybe it was time to find a new hobby. Maybe it was time to find myself again, remember who I was before coming back home a little more than a month ago.  
  
“Gerard?”  
  
Frank was standing in front of me where I was sat at a table in a coffee shop staring at nothing. I hadn’t even noticed him coming in or approaching me.  
  
He smiled down at me. “I’ve been looking for you. How’d I guess you’d be at some place that served coffee?”  
  
“Humor me,” I smiled back, knowing full well that it was the most obvious place to look for me.  
  
“Honestly, Mikey told me you were out of coffee when I went looking for you at the house. Where you were exactly was nothing more than a guess.”  
  
“And why were you looking for me?”  
  
“Well,” he started, almost bouncing in excitement and I noticed he was holding something behind his back. “I know your band split and that really sucks,” he continued sincerely. “But…” He sat down in the empty chair, placing a notebook in front of me. “I was thinking that you shouldn’t stop writing songs only for that reason. I’ve heard some of your songs and you definitely have a talent. That’s why I got you this.” He pointed to the notebook. “Now you can keep on writing songs. That is if you still wanted to.”  
  
It was so considerate of him and yet completely unexpected. “Thank you.” I was slightly awed. “I love it.”  
  
“You do?” Frank grinned brightly. “I thought you might.”  
  
We sat there staring at each other and I could feel the heat start to crawl up against my neck. His eyes were so intense.  
  
“By the, what are you doing here sitting all by yourself?” Frank questioned curiously. “Why didn’t you give me call? I would’ve come with you, you know?”  
  
Yes, I knew he would’ve, but that was the problem. I needed space from him. I needed to sort out my feelings and focus them on something else. Frank was off limits.  
  
“I didn’t think that far,” I lied looking down into my empty cup.  
  
“Don’t worry,” he smiled. “I’ll forgive you this time.”  
  
“Are you ready for school to start again?” I asked, eager to talk about something that didn’t concern me and Frank in one sentence.  
  
He pulled one of the ugliest faces I’ve ever seen on him and yet it was still adorable in its own way. “No! I’ve had a blast this summer and now I have to exchange it for a desk and boring classes. Plus, I won’t be seeing you as much as I have been these last couple of weeks and that really sucks.”  
  
“We’ll still hang out,” I assured him, but his words got me thinking. He was right, now that school was starting again, we won’t be able to spend so much time together. That’ll give me time to get over him, that is, if I didn’t keel over first from missing him too much. Man, I was royally fucked.  
  
“Unfortunately, I gotta run. I’ve got band practice,” Frank announced, getting to his feet.  
  
“You always have band practice.”  
  
He grinned broadly, “I guess I do, but it’s awesome. Do you want to come?”  
  
I checked my watch. “Nah, I’m meeting Ivy at the park in half an hour.”  
  
He looked disappointed for about half a second before shrugging. “That’s cool. Next time then. I’ll see you.” With that he turned and left.  
  
I also got up and paid for my coffee. If I didn’t leave now, I’d be late, meeting Ivy.  
  
 **Ivy’s POV**  
  
“Hey, buddy!” I greeted Gee the second he entered the clearing. “You’re right on time. Don’t get comfortable yet. I’m taking you somewhere.”  
  
“Somewhere?” he asked with a curious smile.  
  
“There’s this insanely amazing record store down by the skaters’ parking lot. Anything you’ve ever heard of, they’ll have it.”  
  
“Seriously?”  
  
“Do you know it?”  
  
“No, but I would definitely love to see it. I’m not completely sure I believe the awesomeness you’re describing, but maybe I’ll stand corrected.”  
  
“You definitely will,” I grinned confidently.  
  
It took a while to reach our destination, since it was practically on the other side of town, but neither of us minded The company was good and we talked about anything and everything. I can’t believe I haven’t known this guy my entire life. I should have. I can’t even remember what it was like before I met him.  
  
He was looking away from me at the people around us and I knew it was time to put my plan in motion. I’ve thought about this long and hard and decided to just go for it. There was absolutely nothing stopping me, aside from his sexuality of course, but whatever. I was going to go into this knowing exactly what the consequences would be. I wasn’t delusional enough to think that this would actually work, hence the backup plan. Before the backup plan could commence, though I had to do this. Now don’t be a chicken shit, Ivy.  
  
The execution had to be perfect and it was. I stopped dead in my tracks waiting for his reaction. The second he turned around in order to ask what I was doing, I stood up on the tips of my toes and planted a quick but firm kiss on his soft lips. It wasn’t much, but I could feel my stomach doing several summersaults. Gerard blinked several times, trying to process what just happened.  
  
“I’m sorry,” I apologized, biting my lip. “I had to do that.”  
  
“Why?” he asked quietly, touching two fingers to his lips.  
  
Honesty was the best policy and hey, maybe dreams did come true. “I really, really like you,” I admitted sheepishly.  
  
“Ivy… You know I’m gay.”  
  
Disappointment washed over me, but I was determined to stay strong. I knew this was going to happen.  
  
“Yeah, I know. Don’t worry, this isn’t a thing. You’ve just been so unhappy about my brother and I thought maybe, hopefully that could cheer you up.” It was the truth. Aside from my feelings for him, I knew how torn up Frank had him and I wanted him to feel better. It wasn’t nice seeing him like this.  
  
A soft smile caressed his lips. “Ivy, you don’t have to worry about me. Honestly, I’m fine.”  
  
We started walking again. “Sure,” I muttered looking up at him. “I don’t believe that. I can always tell when you’re lying, you know?”  
  
“I’m not. I’m…” There was a fast movement from the side, followed by Gerard sprawled out on the pavement. Amazingly the guy who crashed into him was still on his feet although he definitely wasn’t riding his skateboard anymore.  
  
“Shit, I’m so sorry, but…you just walked right in front of me. I didn’t have any time to stop.” The guy was breathless as he fussed over Gerard. “Are you okay?”  
  
Gee was up by this point, dusting himself off. “I’m fine.”  
  
The blonde teen gave him a once over and shook his head in disagreement. “You’re not fine. You’re bleeding.”  
  
Gerard looked down at his bruised knee and turned his hands up to look at his grazed palms. “It’s really nothing.” He frowned in dismay.  
  
“Nonsense.” The other male crouched before him, taking off his backpack and pulling out a box of band aids. He immediately set about patching up Gerard’s knee with bright green Ben 10 band aids. “There we go.” He got back to his feet. “Sorry about that, again.”  
  
“No, it was entirely my fault. I didn’t watch where I was going,” Gee said. “Are you okay?”  
  
“I wasn’t the one on all fours,” the kid replied, walking over to his abandoned skateboard and kicking it up.  
  
There was an awkward silence for a minute or so and I couldn’t help smiling. The two boys were staring at each other at a loss for words. I was going to be the last person to interrupt it, though.  
  
“I’m Adam,” skater boy was the first to break the silence.  
  
“I’m Gerard.”  
  
“Hey, Ivy.”  
  
I smiled at Adam. “Hello, Adam. Ben 10?”  
  
He looked down at his green and purple sneakers. “I’m a skater. Accidents happened,” he scoffed. “You learn to patch up and carry on.”  
  
“Yeah, but Ben 10?” I giggled.  
  
Gerard looked between the two of us. “You two know each other?”  
  
“We go to the same school,” Adam explained. “Ivy is in the most of my classes.”  
  
“Plus, Adam was totally my boyfriend in kindergarten,” I grinned, flinging my arms around his neck.  
  
“Yeah, that was as real as her imaginary friends,” Adam chuckled awkwardly. I loved that he never pushed me off. I could be a real pain in the ass, I knew, but somehow he tolerated me. Gerard smiled too.  
  
“So what brings you to this side of the town?”  
  
“Can you believe Gerard has lived here his entire life, but he’s never been to the music store down here? I had to show him.”  
  
“Cool,” Adam nodded. “I’ll walk with you guys.”  
  
My inner girl grinned broadly. Of course he was walking with us. He was walking with Gerard. I didn’t miss the sparkle in Adam’s eyes when he first stopped to properly take in Gerard’s appearance.  
  
“You’ll love it,” he continued, skateboard in hand as he walked beside us. “They have absolutely everything. If the artist ever existed, they’ll have something of him.”  
  
“I’ll have to see it to believe it.”  
  
I grinned broadly as the two kept talking. I was ecstatic at what was happening next to me. Two of my favorite people were totally hitting it off, just as I knew they would. I knew that the second I introduced them to each other, they would be like magnets and viola. Mission accomplished.  
  
I’d been tired of seeing Gerard hung up on Frank and wanted him to be happy. I loved Adam like a brother and also wanted him to be happy. That’s when I got the idea of the two of them together. Unfortunately, setting them up was never an option. Gerard was too proud and Adam too stubborn. Instead, I made it look like an accidental meeting. That way neither of them will be any wiser. I knew Adam usually spent his afternoons down here, skateboarding with his friends. Of course I couldn’t guarantee a chance meeting, but fortunately things happened to work out. Adam nearly killing Gerard was not at all part of the plan. Oh well, maybe it was a good thing. It got them talking. They’ll thank me one day when they’re married with a bunch of beautiful kids.  
  
“Ivy, you’re still coming to the festival this weekend, right?” Adam was suddenly talking to me.  
  
With all my plotting to get these two together, I nearly forgot about the skating festival here this Saturday. “Of course! I wouldn’t miss it for the world.” I saw another opportunity and took it. “Hey, Gee you should come too. It’ll be fun!”  
  
“You should,” Adam agreed eagerly. “It will go on all day long, but you’re welcome to leave any time you want. A whole bunch of skateboarders from all over the state are congregating here for the day just hanging out and doing what they do best.”  
  
Gerard nodded. “Sure. It sounds like fun.”  
  
“It’s a lot of fun,” I assured him. I always had a blast at these things. “The people are the coolest.”  
  
“Should I bring you more band aids?” Gee asked jokingly.  
  
Adam chuckled, “No, I’ll be fine.”  
  
We reached the music store and didn’t waste any time starting our search for all the best records. I was only busy for about two minutes when I stopped searching and instead focused on my two besties bonding. I didn’t think were searching too hard either. They were looking through records, while standing really close to one another and talking. I resisted the urge to squeal. Ivy Iero, job well done. You just made the day of those two boys.  
  
We were in the store for almost an hour before we left with our new purchases in hand.  
  
“I have to get back to the lot,” Adam told us. “But this was fun. I’ll see you both bright and early Saturday morning?” he asked hopefully, but he wasn’t looking at me. His eyes were locked on Gerard’s.  
  
“I wouldn’t miss it.” This was Gee’s response this time.  
  
“Bye!” Adam got onto his skateboard, leaving the two of us alone.  
  
We started our walk back home too.  
  
“You two are cute,” I couldn’t help commenting.  
  
“What?” Gerard asked wide-eyed.  
  
“You and Adam totally hit it off.”  
  
“No,” he muttered, looking down embarrassed.  
  
“You’re so adorable! You guys will make a great couple.”  
  
“I just met the guy.”  
  
“Give it time,” I smiled knowingly, dropping the topic the rest of the way. I knew what I knew and that was all that mattered.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frank wasn’t the first guy I had to get over and he probably wouldn't be the last.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for the long wait. Hopefully the longer chapter will make up for it!  
> xoxo

“This is exciting!” Ivy exclaimed practically bouncing next to me as we approached the parking lots where the skateboard festival thing was about to take place. I had no idea what to expect.  
  
“You’re really looking forward to this,” I noted, smiling.  
  
“It’s awesome. I love the skateboard scene and today you’re here with me.”  
  
“Do you ride?” I asked curiously.  
  
“Only if I want to ruin my face,” she remarked. “No, I tried it once, but could never quite get the hang of it. Instead I’m just the tag along, leaving it to those who can.”  
  
“Is that how you and Adam met?”  
  
“It is. These kids are the greatest you’ll ever meet. I love hanging out with them. You’ll see for yourself soon enough.”  
  
We reached the parking lot where huge structures were set up for the event and several kids milled about the place, skateboard in hand.  
  
“Now see, this is heaven for a skateboarder. Let’s see if we can find Adam. I’ll go this way and you can go the other way then we’ll meet up on the other side.”  
  
I headed in the opposite direction, taking in my surroundings as I went. I never knew about these kinds of things while I was in school, but it was obviously a big deal. Food carts were parked all around, the half pipe was built for the occasion and there was even a stage set-up.  
  
“Gee!”  
  
My eyes travelled in the direction the voice came from and I saw Frank approaching me with a broad grin and his guitar in hand.  
  
“What are you doing here? Are you here with Ivy?”  
  
“Yes, we’re supposed to meet one of her friends here. What about you? Don’t tell me you suddenly decided to take up skating,” I joked.  
  
“Definitely no. I’m here with the band. We got a slot to play here today, you know, show these locals what real music sounds like. So it’s actually a great thing that you’re here. We’ll have some real supporters and this will be the first time you get to see us perform live.” He was obviously excited as he rambled on about the band’s performance. “I’m talking too much. I have to go set up. Everyone else is wondering about my whereabouts by now. Come check us out. We’re playing at twelve thirty.”  
  
“I’ll be there,” I assured him with a smile as he disappeared into the crowd. Just when I thought I was going to have a Frank free day, surprise, surprise. I finally spotted Adam talking to some guys and walked over.  
  
“Hey, Gerard!” He waved me over to the group. “I’m glad you came.”  
  
“Ivy wouldn’t let me miss it for the world.”  
  
“I’ll have to remember to thank her then,” he grinned at me and I couldn’t help but smile back. It’s not that his smile was infectious, like Frank’s was, it was just so irresistible. “This is Luke and Tanner. They’re old friends I grew up with skateboarding. Unfortunately they’re done with school so they left me to finish senior year on my own.” He pretended to be mad at them.  
  
“Poor kid!” The guy named Luke joked, reaching out a hand and ruffling Adam’s hair.  
  
“You’ll be a big boy too, one day,” Tanner chuckled.  
  
“Screw you guys. I need new friends. Gerard, you wouldn’t mind being my new best friend, would you?”  
  
I opened my mouth to respond that I would gladly be his new best friend, it would give me a chance to get to know him a lot better, but I was interrupted by Ivy’s voice.  
  
“There you are, Gee! I thought we agreed that we would find Adam and then meet each other halfway. Newsflash, this is basically where we started. I guess now that Adam is here you can go ahead and forget all about me. Suddenly I’m not good enough anymore.”  
  
“Always the drama queen, Ivy,” Tanner noted with a small smile and a shake of his head.  
  
The girl grinned at them. “Hey, guys. You all ready to break some legs?”  
  
“Hopefully not!” Luke said loudly. “My Mom’s medical insurance cannot possibly cover anymore fractures. I’ve completely worn it out.”  
  
“Dude, then you need to get better at riding your skateboard,” Adam teased, pumping him in the ribs with his elbow.  
  
“Speaking of,” Ivy started. “Did you remember to restock on Ben 10 band aids?” she asked innocently.  
  
“I did!” he responded excitedly, obviously humoring her. “They’re awesome.”  
  
“It’s Ben 10,” she said exasperated.  
  
“Hey, Ben 10 saved me from bleeding to death,” I gave my input in the conversation.  
  
Ivy rolled her eyes. “You were not going to bleed to death. You barely scratched your knee.”  
  
“That’s not very nice,” Adam retorted. “For all you know he was very traumatized.”  
  
“Please. You guys are being ridiculous. Now who’s being the drama queen?”  
  
“Still you, Ivy,” Luke laughed.  
  
His comment was the last straw. “I’m going somewhere where I’ll be better appreciated. I’ll come back later when you guys are feeling nicer.”  
  
“Ivy, we’re just kidding,” Tanner called after her.  
  
“I know, but I have other cool people to catch up with too,” she said, winking at him.  
  
“Cooler than me?” Luke wanted to know, pointing at himself and throwing his hands up in a questioning manner, but not receiving any response.  
  
“Forget it, man. She’s never going to be into you,” Adam told him.  
  
“Why not? Aren’t I cute enough?” he asked, pressing his cheeks together.  
  
“No, because Ivy likes Gee,” Tanner chuckled.  
  
“Everybody likes Gee,” Adam murmured, smiling to himself as he concentrated on fixing the wheels on his skateboard.  
  
“Hey, Adam we’re going to get our numbers. We’ll be right back,” his friends said, walking away with their skateboards.  
  
“I’ll be here,” Adam responded, bending down to knot his shoelaces. My eyes followed him down. I’ve never understood the fascination with an ass, after all, everyone had one, but his was nice. Holy crap! This was awkward. He just caught me staring at his ass.  
  
I cleared my throat. “Nice jeans.”  
  
“Uh, thanks,” he muttered awkwardly.  
  
“Are they stretch jeans?”  
  
“No, not really.”  
  
“Hey, Adam! Come on!” His friends called from over by the half-pipe.  
  
“I have to go. You should watch,” he said, picking up his skateboard and making his way over to the other guys. I face-palmed as soon as he turned his back on me. _What the hell, Gerard Way? ‘Are they stretch jeans?’_ I might as well have admitted to staring at his ass.  
  
I followed him over to the half-pipe and watched as Adam, his friends and some other guys started to ride. I watched them do all their neat little tricks and stunts. I would kill myself if I even tried any of it. I didn’t know much about skateboarding, but in my opinion it was pretty impressive. That was until Luke did a spectacular face plant. Adam was laughing so hard on his way down that he missed his chance to break and also ended up on his back. Tanner at least knew what he was doing.  
  
“Amateurs!” the latter exclaimed when they approached me.  
  
“Did you see him?” Adam was bursting with laughter. “He just went down right on his face!” he screeched.  
  
“It’s not like you did any better,” Tanner pointed out with a chuckle. “Dude, are you okay? Adam has Ben 10 band aids.”  
  
Luke was holding onto his shoulder. “I don’t think Ben 10 will be able to save the situation. I think I might have broken my collar bone.”  
  
“Shouldn’t you be crying in pain?” I asked with a frown. I would’ve died if I had broken my collar bone.  
  
“Luke is the worst skateboarder you will ever meet. He’s broken so many bones, he’s become immune to the pain,” Adam joked.  
  
“Yeah, his mom’s medical aid doesn’t even want to cover his expenses anymore,” Tanner laughed. “Come on, man. My car is parked right here. I’ll take you to the hospital.”  
  
Luke cringed and started limping in the direction of Tanner’s car.  
  
“We’ll be back later,” Tanner informed Adam before following his injured friend.  
  
I watched them go and then looked around for Ivy. She was nowhere in sight and I assumed she had found more friends to hang out with. This was clearly where she belonged even if, as she said, she couldn’t skate.  
  
“How about lunch? I’m buying,” Adam offered with a smile.  
  
“Sounds good, but are you okay? You also fell down.”  
  
“I’m fine. My left butt cheek may be a little blue tomorrow, but other than that, I’m sure I’ll survive,” he said, twisting to look at his dirty jeans. “Besides it was totally worth it.”  
  
I laughed. “It was pretty hilarious.”  
  
We started in the direction of a fast food truck standing not too far away.  
  
“How do you and Ivy know each other?” Adam wanted to know.  
  
“We met about a month ago in the park and she invited me to one of her brother’s parties. We instantly got along and kept in touch since then.”  
  
“Now you’re best friends.”  
  
“Basically, yeah,” I nodded smiling. Ivy was kind of my best friend and she was the best person. I was lucky to have met her.  
  
“That’s cool. She found me skateboarding down their street one day and I haven’t been able to rid myself of her since not that I tried. She’s awesome. Sometimes she can be a bit of a handful though,” he chuckled. “What would you like to eat?”  
  
“Uh, what do they have?”  
  
“They have the best hot dogs in the world,” he said, getting on the step in front of the van and waiting for me to decide on what to eat.  
  
“Then a hotdog it is.”  
  
I stepped back to let other people get to the front while Adam placed our order. It seemed like more kids showed up as the sun got higher. This was clearly a fun day for the teens showing up to listen to the music and watch the skaters. I couldn’t figure out how I never knew about this. It was probably a scene thing.  
  
“Here you go, one with everything,” Adam announced, handing me a big, greasy hotdog with all kinds of toppings. This was going to be very messy.  
  
I was so preoccupied with my lunch that I didn’t even notice Adam’s eyes on me. I was trying to figure out how to eat it when I decided to just go for it. I opened my mouth as wide as possible and took a bite from the hotdog. As expected sauce ran down my chin and some of the toppings landed on the ground.  
  
“You eat like a pig,” Adam laughed.   
  
“I’m…” I swallowed. “It’s impossible not to.”  
  
“Look, it’s human nature to keep the food in your mouth. Watch, open,” he demonstrated by opening his mouth wide and then taking a bite from his own lunch. “And then chew,” he muttered with his mouth full of food, making me laugh. “Basic instinct,” he said once he swallowed.  
  
“I could tell,” I laughed and in response he shoved a napkin in my face. “Hey!”  
  
 _“Learn to live with decisions that you made.”_  
  
“Now you’re all cleaned up,” Adam grinned broadly.  
  
 _“It must kill you to know that we can’t be friends. End of the summer, you cut me off.”_  
  
My ears caught the sound of familiar music from the direction of the stage and my heart stopped. Frank’s show. Shit, I completely forgot.  
  
“What time is it?”  
  
“I don’t know, why?”  
  
“Fuck, I am so late. Here,” I shoved the leftover hotdog in his hands and ran towards the stage.  
  
 _“We’re over and done. Stop calling my house!”_  
  
I reached the side of the stage completely out of breath, but just in time as the band started coming off the stage. I missed the whole damn thing. I cursed myself for forgetting. How could I forget? They were all excited coming off the stage. I knew the feeling, that adrenaline rush you got from playing in front of hundreds of kids. My chance was of course over now that my band split.  
  
“Here you are. I was looking for you in the crowd while we played,” Frank said slightly out of breath as he came off the stage covered in sweat. He drank from a water bottle and wiped his face with a towel hanging from his shoulder, sweeping his sweaty hair across his face.  
  
“Uhm, yeah. I was side stage as you can tell,” I attempted to joke, while in truth I was lying my ass off. “You were awesome!” I faked enthusiasm, feeling shit about having missed it. “And the crowd loved it.”  
  
“They did, didn’t they?” His smile was seamless. “Wow, I feel great.”  
  
“You should,” I nodded. “Did you enjoy it?”  
  
“I had the best time,” he grinned broadly.  
  
“Frank, hey, you were great!” Lisa wrapped her arms around her boyfriend, hugging him tightly. “You owned every single person out there. They couldn’t get enough.”  
  
“Thanks!” He kissed her and pulled back, wiping his face again.  
  
“Hey, I’m going to look for Ivy,” I told Frank.  
  
“Are you sure? You’re coming to Scarlet’s party tonight, right?”  
  
I wasn’t even aware that she was having a party. “Sure, I’ll be there,” I nodded, turning away from them and walking in no particular direction. “See you both later.”  
  
It was impossible not to like Lisa. She was one of those model citizens, you know, as close as you could get to a perfect human being. It was no wonder that Frank loved her. I could never compete with that.  
  
“Where did you run off to?” Adam’s voice drew me from my reverie.  
  
“Sorry about that,” I apologized sheepishly. “One of my friends was performing on stage and I completely forgot.”  
  
“Did you miss it?”  
  
“Unfortunately.”  
  
“I’m sorry,” Adam said sincerely. “It’s my fault.”  
  
“No way. If I wasn’t having fun, I wouldn’t have forgotten about it,” I assured him.  
  
“In that case I’ll bore you to death from now on to ensure that you don’t forget anything again,” he joked.  
  
I laughed. “Good luck with that.”  
  
“I can be boring,” he insisted. “I’m quite sure I can be.”  
  
“Where’s the fun in that?”  
  
He chuckled. Halfway back to the half-pipe we bumped into Ivy.  
  
“Gee, where were you? I thought for sure you would be watching the show.”  
  
“I accidentally forgot.”  
  
Her eyes grew wide, but a smile was playing across her lips. “You know he was looking for you in the crowd. What are you going to tell him?”  
  
“I lied and said that I was side stage the entire time.”  
  
“Who, your boyfriend?” Adam wanted to know.  
  
“Not at all,” I kind of snorted.  
  
“My brother. Whoa, look, it’s Steven.”  
  
The pair both hurried over to the side of the half-pipe and stared at the lone skater in awe. The guy seemed to be a big deal.  
  
“Steven Garret. He’s a legend. He also attended Belleville High,” Ivy explained, not taking her eyes off the guy. “He went pro some years ago, but he’s been coming back here every year. This is after all where he was discovered. Home pride, it’s something more people should have. Remember that when you get big too, Adam.”  
  
He nodded with a smile and I watched them continue to stare.  
  
*  
  
Ivy and I arrived at the party more than an hour late. After Tanner and Luke, with his arm in a sling, returned, the five of us hung out and stayed until the end of the festival before finding the nearest burger shack, practically parking ourselves there indefinitely. It was fun. The guys were really great and hilarious too. Ivy and I were bummed when we finally had to go. It was definitely worth being late, but now that we were finally at the party we felt rushed and stormed inside only to find everyone sitting in the living room, playing spin the bottle.  
  
“It’s about time you two arrived!” Scarlet called from her place on the floor. “Come join us.”  
  
I looked at Ivy panicked.  
  
“Relax,” she hushed me.  
  
“I can’t relax,” I whispered wide-eyed. “They’re playing seven minutes in heaven again. I probably should’ve guessed it since that’s apparently what they always do, but I can’t join in. What happens if I end up in a closet with Frank again? You know what happened the last time.”  
  
“There are a lot more people here this time. The chances of you guys getting hooked up are slight. What else are you going to do, sit there and watch everyone else play? Besides, even if you do get paired up with my brother it doesn’t necessarily mean that anything has to happen.”  
  
“I guess you’re right,” I shrugged, following her over to the group of people playing and we sat down between Bob and some other girl I didn’t know. While a couple spent seven minutes in heaven, the rest of us played truth or dare. That I could do. I’m pretty sure nothing I’ve done compared to anything these kids have done and the dares weren’t too extreme either. It was all in good fun. I looked up at some point and saw Frank and Lisa talking animatedly. They were the best couple ever. That didn’t mean I wasn’t jealous. I still liked Frank even though I knew he was off limits. I obviously wasn’t going to act on my feelings. I wasn’t an idiot.  
  
Of course fate hated me. Frank reached out for the bottle when it was his turn and he spun it. The bottle went around and around and around, my eyes not leaving it for a second. It slowed down, moving in my direction. Inside I prayed for all I was worth that it would not be me. The bottle stopped and so did my heart.  
  
“Bob!” Ivy’s voice yelled distracting me for about half a second. “You lucky bastard you!”  
  
“No, it’s Gerard,” Scary corrected her, pointing to the tip of the bottle that was in fact pointing in my direction.  
  
Ivy looked at me apologetically and I sighed, getting to my feet and following Frank to the closet being used for the game. It was bigger than the one we had used at Frank and Ivy’s house that time. There was space between us which I was very grateful for.  
  
“Look, Gee I don’t want this to be awkward,” Frank said after a long time of silence. “We’ve finally reached an awesome place in our friendship and I don’t want to ruin it.”  
  
“I agree,” I said, feeling myself relax. Maybe this won’t be so bad after all.  
  
“I have Lisa and you and Ivy seem pretty close.”  
  
“We’re just friends.”  
  
“I know,” he nodded and the silence picked up again.  
  
I looked down at my shoes in order to avoid his eyes, his face or any other part of him for that matter. This was beyond uncomfortable. The last time I was crammed into a closet with Frank… I shouldn’t let my thoughts go there. The bad part was that since then I’ve actually gotten to know him and he was a great guy, he really was. He was beyond wise for his years, he was funny and he had the most adorable little laugh. I was really crushing on him so hard and that’s exactly why being stuffed into a closet with him was so bad.  
  
“Gerard…”  
  
“Frank, don’t.”  
  
“But I…” I looked up right into his big round hazel eyes and I could tell that he was thinking the exact same thing that I was. This was a game. No one was going to think anything funny if we played along with the rules. Scary would be in the clouds. Ivy might not approve, but who gave a damn? I wanted to kiss Frank and if this was the only time we could do so without it resulting in him cheating on his amazing girlfriend then I was going to make the best of the probably only four minutes we had left. In the end I’ll be the one who gets hurt, but I was okay with that, for now.  
  
I wasn’t sure who moved first, but very soon we were pressed against each other and kissing each other deeply. It was different from the last time. The last time we did this it was sloppy and rushed. We had been trying to do everything at once, because it had all been out of lust. This time we had an understanding. We were friends. For me that sucked, but right then it didn’t matter. This was the way it was supposed to be. It felt good kissing Frank. His hands were buried in my hair, keeping my face glued to his. My arms were wrapped tightly around his body. Neither of us was going anywhere.  
  
“Gee, stop,” Frank pulled away and stared at me wide-eyed. “This isn’t fair to you. This can’t go anywhere.”  
  
“I don’t care.”  
  
He pressed his lips back to mine and pushed me backwards against the wall. His hands moved up and down my sides. I was exactly where I wanted to be, as close to Frank as possible. If we could stay like this forever, that would be okay with me too.  
  
“Do you guys plan on rejoining us anytime soon?” someone asked, knocking loudly on the door. “You’ve been in there for ten minutes.” We parted reluctantly, Frank pecking my lips a few more times before finally letting me go completely.  
  
“I forgot to set my watch,” Frank told whoever was on the other side while he patted his hair.  
  
“Well, time is up,” the person spoke and then we heard footsteps dying away.  
  
“I’m sorry,” Frank muttered with a quick glance in my direction before he stepped out of the closet and returned to the group in the living room.  
  
I composed myself very quickly and followed. Nobody said anything as we entered. Ivy looked up at me with big demanding eyes and I managed to force a smile in her direction, hoping to assure her that nothing happened and that I was fine. Only nothing didn’t happen. I made everything worse by kissing Frank. Now I was definitely not going to get over him that easily. It would take a miracle. Damn it!  
  
I caught Frank staring at me several times in the duration of the night and I knew he was also affected by what happened. I wasn’t sure how, though. Was he mad? Did he feel guilty? I did. I couldn’t stay any longer and soon decided to bail on the party. Once I got home, it was nice to talk to Mikey. It was normal and he helped me to feel better about the whole thing. Frank wasn’t the first guy I had to get over and he probably wouldn't be the last.  
  



	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am sorry this took so long and that it's so short. So thanks, if you're still reading this and putting up with my lazy ass.

**Gerard** **'s POV**

 

I sat in a booth at one of the local coffee shops, drumming my fingers to the beat of a song that’s been stuck in my head all day long. I haven’t seen Frank for a week, since our last closet encounter. I’ve been avoiding him, hoping to get the incident out of my system. Besides, what would we say if we saw each other again? The truth was that there was nothing left to say. Frank had a girlfriend. Period. We were never going to happen. I took a sip of my coffee. I haven’t really seen Ivy since then either. She’s been busy with school. Also, I’ve kind of been avoiding her too in case she decided to start asking questions about Saturday night. If she did, I would have to lie. Ivy didn’t have to know that I caved and attached myself to her brother for the better part of ten minutes.  
  
I felt a hand on my shoulder. “Hey, am I late?” Adam asked, sitting down across from me.  
  
“No, I’ve been here… almost all afternoon.”  
  
I was bored and wanted to talk to someone who didn’t know about me and Frank, that meant someone who wasn’t Ivy or Mikey or, of course, Frank. I had texted Adam, we had exchanged numbers after the skateboard festival on Saturday, and invited him out for coffee.  
  
“So how have you been?” he asked.  
  
“I’ve been good. How about you?”  
  
“I’m always good,” he grinned. “Uh, a regular coffee please,” he told the waitress who came to take his order.  
  
“Can I have a refill please?”  
  
The blonde waitress nodded, not bothering to write down such a simple order, and then left to fill it.  
  
“What’s up?” It was once again Adam who asked.  
  
“School has started again. How is it?” I countered.  
  
“So far it’s good. I mean, how much fun can school really be? On the bright side, I’m graduating at the end of this school year so that’s awesome. Tell me about yourself. We barely know each other. Have you lived here your whole life?”  
  
I nodded, “I was born here.”  
  
“And you’re…”  
  
“Nineteen.” He motioned with his hands for me to go on. “After school I started a band with some friends. We never got around to actually recording an album, but we had some demos and we toured on those for a while, but we recently split so currently I’m jobless and living with my parents.”  
  
“Why didn’t it work out?”  
  
The waitress showed up with our coffees and we thanked her before continuing with our conversation.  
  
“I wasn’t singing quite as well as I could and the instrument players weren’t the best either.”  
  
“Then why don’t you start a new band. This time you should give it everything you have and you can find band members who actually know how to play their instruments. I’m certain you’ll be great. I’ll come watch your shows.”  
  
I smiled at how eager he sounded. “What about you? Who are you?” It was my turn to ask him about himself.  
  
“Me? I’m the youngest of four children. I have two older sisters and an older brother. I was that kid that was born really late like when your parents are finally ready to send their last child off to college and then surprise! There was another baby in the house. I was that baby. I’m exactly eighteen years younger than my brother. We share a birthday. It’s like our parents planned it.” He faked a shiver. “Apparently they weren’t ready to face an empty house after my brother left for college so they had me. At least I wasn’t a surprise baby. Either way I don’t mind. I love being here. Life is awesome,” he grinned.  
  
“I’m seriously impressed with all your optimism.”  
  
“Some people tend to find it annoying. So why have you been stuck here all afternoon?” he wanted to know, taking a sip of his coffee and quietly hissing as it burned him.  
  
I shrugged.  
  
“You don’t know?” He seemed to be amused. “You’re an interesting person, Gerard. I don’t know why, but you are.”

*

  
 **Ivy's POV**  
  
I stopped dead in my tracks when I noticed my two besties having coffee together. This was an interesting turn of events. I didn’t think they would actually come this far. They barely knew each other. I smiled to myself, because it would appear that they liked each other more than I expected. On the other hand, they were only having coffee and I feared that neither of them would make the first move without a little help. Never fear though, because I would be the one to give them that little push in the right direction, nothing major, simply help the process along. Honestly, the faster the two of them got together, the faster I can stop worrying about Gerard and my brother. I knew something happened last Friday night. I was mad at Gee for not telling me and for letting things go that far. I was even more furious at my brother for doing this. What the hell was he thinking? Gerard had feelings and Frank was trampling all over them like they were nothing, because let’s face it, he had no intention of breaking up with Lisa which meant that he was going to keep leading Gee on and that wasn’t fair at all. I turned around and head back in the direction of the entrance of the coffee shop.  
  
The smell of coffee as I stepped inside was heavenly and I noticed that the place was only a little busy. “You guys are having a party without me? I feel left out,” I joked, sitting down in the booth next to Gerard. He looked surprised to see me.  
  
“Hello, Ivy,” Adam smiled at me. I swear a loved the kid. There was no cooler person on this earth.  
  
“We were just about to go get ice-cream. Do you want to come?” Gee asked, already pulling out money to pay their bill. Damn, I nearly missed them then.  
  
“Come on,” Adam said, grabbing the bill and going to give it to the cashier.  
  
“You’ve been avoiding me,” I whispered to Gee.  
  
“No, I haven’t,” he responded casually like he had no idea what I was talking about.  
  
“What happened between you and my brother or should I rather not ask, because you’ve been avoiding him too.”  
  
“Do you really want to know?” he asked, looking at me.  
  
I shifted out of my seat and waited for him to follow. “You promised…”  
  
“You guys ready to leave?” Adam asked, rejoining us and effectively stopping our argument dead.  
  
Gerard smiled brightly at him and motioned for me to walk first. _Chill out, Ivy. Whatever happened can’t be undone. Focus on the task at hand._ As soon as we were outside, I hopped onto Adam’s back.  
  
“To the bat cave, Alfred!”  
  
“I see we have a Batman fan in our midst,” Gee chuckled, falling into step beside us.  
  
“I love Batman. Adam is a lame ass Spiderman groupie.”  
  
“I am not a groupie. I just prefer Spiderman to all the other superheroes. The movies are better.”  
  
“You and Frank can seriously be one and the same person.”  
  
I looked at Gerard and grinned. It was sad but true. My brother and I had pretty much the same likes and dislikes. Look at Gerard for example, we both liked him. Plus our energy levels were the same, too high. I squeezed Adam’s shoulders and he turned his head slightly to see me.  
  
“Faster,” I quietly said with a smile.  
  
“Your wish is my command.” Suddenly he set off at a jog and I guess it somehow turned into a race between him and Gerard. It was hardly fair, because even though Adam ran track, he had to carry me with him. We didn’t run too far though, because naturally they both had to get tired at some point or another.  
  
“Shit, I smoke you know,” Gerard complained, gasping for breath.  
  
Adam laughed, placing a hand on his shoulder. “Then this should be a good motivation to quit.”  
  
“Quit running, yeah.” Gee glanced up at him from where he was still bent over double.  
  
Adam fell down on the grass, lying spread out on his back, laughing and trying to catch his breath at the same time. Gee plopped down next to him, sitting cross-legged.  
  
“I am not very good at anything athletic.”  
  
“I can tell.”  
  
“I’ll go get the ice-creams,” I told them and walked away. Things between them seemed to be going well. This might be easier than I thought. I smiled all the way to the ice-cream cart and back. It was a beautiful sunny day and my two best friends were hitting it off. Why shouldn’t I be happy? Oh, and look at the two of them subconsciously flirting with one another. It’s adorable how they made contact with each other without even realizing it. Gee’s knee was touching Adam where he was lying flat on the ground and Adam’s fingers were tapping on his knee. They clearly had a lot to talk about too, since every time I saw them together, their lips were moving and there was laughing. Neither of them could stop smiling and it made me grin gleefully.  
  
“Here you go.” I handed Gee an ice-cream while Adam sat up in order to take his. “Beautiful day, huh?” I smiled knowingly at the two. They exchanged looks and nodded in agreement.  
  
*  
  
 **Gerard** **'s POV**  
  
Frank and I were sitting shoulder to shoulder on his bed, playing video games. I was totally kicking his ass too, even though my thoughts weren’t completely there. They were still in the park where I had ice-cream with Adam and Ivy. Adam was cool. He obviously looked after Ivy like a little sister. I could tell from the way they played and talked that they were really close. He was fun and I enjoyed his company. He was a smart kid and loved life. It was kind of amazing. And his eyes, those deep dark blue eyes… The corners of my lips twitched upwards. That was another thing, he had this great lopsided smile…  
  
“Hey, where are your thoughts? I just killed you.”  
  
I blinked and looked at Frank. “So you did. Can you do it again?”  
  
He grinned, “You’re on.” He restarted the game and for a few seconds it was quiet expect for the sound of shooting guns coming from the television. “So have you found a job yet?”  
  
“No, but I’m looking. I was thinking that I should try the comic book store or the record shop since clearly there isn’t much else for me here.”  
  
“You’re too picky. You should try finding any job first and then you can look for something you actually like. At least that way you’ll have some money and not be stuck at home bored all day.” He killed me and I respawned in a different location.  
  
“It’s not right that you’re smarter than I am,” I muttered, trying not to die again.  
  
“I’m just awesome like that.” I could hear rather than see the smile on his face. “I’m going to conquer the world too. My band is going to be totally awesome to the point where I have girls and guys lining up to be with me. Even old ladies,” he giggled. “Don’t you think I’ll be a great cougar pet?”  
  
I laughed, “What have you been eating?”  
  
“Don’t you agree?”  
  
“I think the cougars will love you.”  
  
“Yes!” He laughed heartily.  
  
“You’re one deranged little kid, you know that?” I grinned, putting down my controller.  
  
He stuck his tongue out at me. “You know you love me.”  
  
“That’s the problem.” I got up and started to put on my shoes.  
  
“Gee, where are you going?”  
  
“I have to go, Frank.”  
  
He scrambled onto his knees. “Why? I thought we were having fun.”  
  
“I promised my mom that I would make dinner,” I lied without even thinking about it.  
  
“Is this about the love comment, because you know I was only joking, right?” I sighed deeply. Sometimes he didn’t know when to stop talking.  
  
“What if it was, Frank? We’re just friends. Shouldn’t you be spending more time with your girlfriend than me?”  
  
“I saw her in school today whereas I haven’t seen you in a week. You’ve been avoiding me since our encounter Saturday night.” He was also on his feet now and he looked somewhat annoyed.  
  
“Do you blame me?” I asked him, meeting his eyes. It was always a million times easier to stand my ground when we weren’t shoved into a damn closet together.  
  
“Look, Gee,” he started, grabbing my arm. “I’m sorry that things have to be this way. I like you, I really do, a lot, but I have a girlfriend and you know that. I don’t know what more I can do. You can’t blame me every time you get your heart broken when you know where we stand. Even though I like you, I love Lisa and that’s not going to change, at least not any time soon. I’m sorry.”  
  
He had a point. I tended to get my hopes up every time there was even the tiniest hint of something happening between us even though I knew there was no chance. It’s not like Frank went out of his way to make me think that there was a possibility of us. The only time he actually seemed to reciprocate my feelings was when we were stuffed in a closet with the air around us being charged with whatever the hell was between us.  
  
“You’re right,” I conceded quietly.  
  
“Are you okay?”  
  
“I’m fine. I have to go.” I turned and left his room, quickly greeting Ivy as I passed her in the hallway and leaving. That was definitely not the way I expected to end an overall great day. Maybe I didn’t have to. I changed direction and soon found myself ringing Adam’s doorbell.  
  
“Gerard?” he smiled, surprised to see me.  
  
“How about pizza?” I asked.  
  
“I’ll just tell my mom.”  
  
I could feel the whole thing with Frank slipping away as I waited and I knew that the day wasn’t over yet. The night still held a lot of promise.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “If, theoretically, you were to woo me, how would you do it?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I'm alive and slow at updating. Sorry about that.  
> I hope that this chapter is okay. Let me know.  
> xoxo

**Gerard's POV**

 

“How’s the new job?” Ivy asked, leaning against the counter where I was pricing the new merchandise.  
  
“Can’t you tell that I love it,” I grinned, dropping the comic book in my hand on the pile forming next to me.  
  
“So you’re good?”  
  
“I fixed up my old car. It’s that white Honda out front. I have a job that I enjoy and I have a date with Adam tonight.” I was better than I have been in a long time.  
  
Ivy squealed unexpectedly, dropping the stack of comics she was about to put away. “You and Adam are going on a date?”  
  
“Shit, did I say that out loud?”  
  
“Why, weren’t you planning on telling me?” she asked in a huff. I opened my mouth and shut it again, not sure exactly how to fix the situation. “Never mind,” Ivy muttered.”Who finally gathered the guts to ask the other out?”  
  
Her question caught me off guard, because it didn’t quite happen like that. “Neither of us,” I admitted with a shrug. “We went to get pizza the other night and kind of agreed to go out again. I guess you can’t really call it a date. I mean I’m not even sure if he’s gay.”  
  
“What??? Are you serious?” Ivy looked incredulous. “Or are you completely blind? Adam is nuts about you. Besides don’t you guys have a sixth sense for things like that like you can spot another gay person from a mile away?”  
  
I laughed at the absurdity of her question. “No, otherwise mine is seriously broken. Look at what happened with Frank.”  
  
“Shut up. My brother’s an ass, you couldn’t have known. Anyway, he’s bi. That has to count for something and it’s not like that stopped you from making a move.” She rolled her eyes, continuing to help me put out the new merchandise.  
  
“Do you blame me? You’re brother is f-ing hot.” Out of nowhere I got hit with a comic book.  
  
“Are you telling me you checked him out from the second we stepped inside my house?” I scratched my head and avoided making eye contact. “So I never stood a chance.” She said apprehensively.  
  
I shrugged apologetically, pulling the tape off the next box of comics. “I’m sorry, Ivy. I like…”  
  
“Yeah, yeah, I know. Me too, yet another thing we have in common,” she interrupted me, muttering that last part to herself. “My mission in life, falling for guys I can never have. So what do I do? I set them up with each other.”  
  
“You like Adam?” I did not see that one coming, but then again, it should have been obvious.  
  
“I used to, though not since I was like sixteen or so. It’s cool. What are your plans for tonight? Do you have anything special planned?”  
  
I shook my head, slightly frowning. “No, we’d probably make it up as we go.”  
  
“How romantic, Gee,” came her sarcastic response. “What do you usually do on dates?”  
  
“To be honest, I haven’t been on a date in years. The last time was still in high school and I didn’t initiate it which meant that it wasn’t my responsibility to think of something to do.”  
  
“Well, what did you do on that date?”  
  
“Not a lot of talking,” I admitted sheepishly.  
  
“You devil you,” she grinned, pumping me in the ribs. “You and Adam will get along just fine.”  
  
“What does that mean?”  
  
“How do I put this?” she pretended to think about it. “Let’s say that he’ll be very good at seven minutes in heaven.”  
  
“I hate that fucking game,” I growled angrily, walking over to the shelf and shoving a handful of comics into place.  
  
“Then let’s not talk about it. I had my girl moment when I squealed about you guys going on a date. Seriously, I hope you guys have fun and that you hit it off, because aside of my brother and my mom and my dad, you guys are my two favorite people in the world.”  
  
“And your dog,” I joked, because quite frankly we weren’t that high on her list of favorite people.  
  
“Luckily for you I don’t have a dog. I have to run, but let me know how it goes, except maybe leave out the gory details.” She winked at me as she headed for the door.  
  
“Like I was going to share those with you in any case.” I turned back to my work, hoping to finish up before closing time.  
  
*  
  
I approached the skaters’ parking lot where I was supposed to meet up with Adam. It was convenient since I worked only about two blocks away at the comic book store. When I thought about it that meant I could see him a lot more often. I smiled at the thought. I stopped just short of where Adam and his friends were riding around. I didn’t wish to repeat the day we met so I stayed safely out of the way.  
  
“Hey,” Adam stopped in front of me and picked up his skateboard. “You done with work?” I nodded in response. “Great,” he smiled wiping his forehead with his arm. “Ready for the night? I was thinking that we could get a pizza and go to my house to hang out.” I felt myself relax at his words. This wasn’t going to be an awkward, under pressure first date thing. It was simply going to be the two of us hanging out and having a good time.  
  
“Sounds great,” I agreed. Adam waved at his friends and we started towards my car.  
  
“Nice wheels,” he commented while I unlocked the doors and got in on the driver’s side.  
  
“Thanks, I recently fixed her up with a lot of help of course.”  
  
“I could have helped,” he informed me. “She looks great, though.”  
  
We got in the car and I drove to the pizza hut nearest to the residential area where Adam lives. There we bought two large pizzas, triple cheese and pepperoni. Clearly Adam loves cheese, a lot, and then it was officially time for our date.  
  
*  
  
 **Frank’s POV**  
  
When you stare at the ceiling long enough… nothing happens. I’ve been staring at my ceiling for at least twenty minutes thinking about Gerard. I couldn’t get why he stormed out the other day. Okay, I did. He was still into me. I understood a lot better than he knew. I was still into him too. I was into him a lot. I still remembered the day after we met when I had woken up all excited about seeing him and when I had the greatest time hanging out with him. If only Lisa and her friends hadn’t shown up. On the other hand, my relationship with her would have had to come out eventually. I hadn’t wanted to hide it. I had simply wanted the day to last longer. I hadn’t meant to keep it a secret. Of course Gerard wouldn’t believe me, but ever since we’d made peace, I’ve been trying so hard to keep things between us light and easy. We got along great and we had so much fun together. It’s kind of a pity that we met through 7 Minutes in Heaven. If we had only met through Ivy and had never been stuffed into a closet together, things might have been a million times simpler. We would have been best friends without the added sexual tension.  
  
I think he’s mad at me. He denied it, but that hasn’t kept him from avoiding me. I haven’t seen or heard anything from him in almost a week. That wasn’t normal, since we made contact at least daily, normally. I didn’t know what to do. It’s not like I tried to do anything that might give him the wrong idea about us. We played games and stuff. We didn’t do anything that could potentially lead to something else. It’s not like I could control either of our feelings and change it to platonic. It wasn’t fair that all the bad stuff were placed on my shoulders. Yes, I kissed Gerard that first night and yes, I neglected to tell him about Lisa straight away, but did that make me a bad guy. I was trying, but Gerard wasn’t making this easy.  
  
Maybe there was a way we could still spend time together without the risk of forgetting ourselves and doing something we would later regret. It was a way that would ensure spending a lot of time together. He won’t be able to avoid me even if he wanted to. I pulled up my covers and turned off the bedside lamp before dropping my head back on the pillow. I smiled happily. I’ll ask Gee to join the band.  
  
*  
  
 **Gerard’s POV**  
  
“Three of a kind!” He whooped excitedly. “My turn. Woo me.”  
  
“What?” I was confused. We were kind of playing twenty questions, but we coupled it with a game of poker. Whoever won, got to ask the other a question.  
  
“If, theoretically, you were to woo me, how would you do it?” He looked really interested.  
  
“Uhm,” I thought about his question. I was amused by his use of the word ‘woo’. “I might start out by doing something fun. The best way to get someone’s attention is to have a good time with them. I might deliver a plate of homemade cookies. My grandma makes the best peanut butter cookies ever.” I guess I was bragging a little. I smiled as I kept talking. “I would show up at your door like all the time. I don’t…” His lips quickly pressed against mine. It was so brief that I wasn’t even sure that it actually happened. However, the satisfied look on Adam’s face as he sat back was unmistakable.  
  
“If I were to woo you, I would, well, now that you have I job, I guess I’ll be the most loyal or at least most frequent customer you have.” Adam said as if he hadn’t just kissed me. “Plus, I’ll drop little compliments every chance I get, because apparently I’m a huge flirt without even knowing it”  
  
“You already do that,” I heard myself saying, remembering all the quiet little remarks I’ve heard him make since meeting him.  
  
“I know,” he smiled secretively. “Maybe I do realize it after all.”  
  
A silence followed, but it wasn’t awkward or anything. We were both just caught up in our own thoughts. Tonight went a lot better than I expected. Once we arrived at his house, we immediately stuffed our faces with pizza while watching some lame movie. We played a game of red hands, I lost. I was willing to bet that my hands have never had that much color in them. We spent a lot of time talking and now we were here. Unfortunately it was getting late, or rather it was late. I had work in the morning and Adam had school. We both had to get to bed if we had any intention of getting through the next day.  
  
“I should probably get going,” I said, getting to my feet and straightening my clothes.  
  
“No, you don’t,” he disagreed.  
  
I chuckled. “Yes, I do.”  
  
Adam let out the biggest sigh I have ever heard and stood up. “Fine.”  
  
I said goodbye to his parents and then he walked me out to my car.  
  
“I had a great time. We should do this again soon, like tomorrow,” Adam said.  
  
“I’ll see what I can do,” I assured him with a smile. I leaned forward and kissed him not as quickly as he did earlier. I kept my lips pressed against his for a few moments before pulling back. “See you tomorrow.”  
  
“Yeah,” Adam murmured, walking backwards towards the house while I got in the car and drove away.


	10. Chapter 10

There was a knock on my bedroom window. I pushed the covers off me and turned on a lamp before walking over and pulling the curtains aside in order to reveal Adam’s smiling face. I opened the window.

“This is a nice surprise. What are you doing here?” Maybe it was a stupid question, but I had already been half asleep before the disturbance.

“I came to see you,” he said, grinning.

“Come round the front door.”

He looked inside as if he could see through my bedroom walls to where my family was watching television in the living room. “It’s late and I didn’t know if your parents would be cool with me stopping by.”

I rubbed at my eyes to wake them up properly. “Nonsense, go through the gate at the back of the house and I’ll meet you at the kitchen door. That way no one will have to know you’re here.”

“Ok,” he said in a whisper, disappearing from my view.

Shutting the window and pulling the curtains together, I looked around my bedroom. It looked fine so I snuck out to the kitchen where Adam was already waiting at the door. I hurriedly unlocked it and let him slip inside before locking it again.

“Everyone’s in the living room,” I informed him quietly.

He nodded and we snuck down the hallway, pausing briefly at the door to the living room. I peered inside to see my parents and Mikey watching The Simpsons, completely unaware of our presence.

We quietly laughed after we had passed and were nearly at my bedroom.

“Sshhh!” I tried to keep him quiet and in response he pushed me against the wall and kissed me.

It lasted only for a few seconds before we stumbled into my bedroom, failing to shut the door quietly, but neither of us noticed or cared. Instead we stopped just inside the room, standing in the middle of the floor, making out furiously. Our heavy breathing was the only sound in the room. I helped him out of his jacket and our shirts soon followed it to the floor before we collapsed on my tiny bed. I honestly didn’t mind the size of it in that moment, because Adam was straddling my waist, not once removing his lips from mine. We were grinding against each other like two horny teenagers, Adam actually having a legitimate excuse, as he was one. My own hands couldn’t find a single resting place, moving everywhere across his body.

When neither of us could breathe any longer we slowly and reluctantly parted, staring at each other for a while. Adam started laughing then, lying down next to me, practically squished between my body and the wall.

“Wow,” he muttered out of breath.

“Yeah.” I reached over to turn the light off and then found Adam’s face in the dark, pulling his lips back to mine.

*

The next morning I woke up with a smile on my face, recalling the night before and still experiencing the welcome warmth and comfort of the body next to mine. Adam was still fast asleep, his head resting on my shoulder and his mouth slightly open. I would have stayed there all day, but I was in desperate need of a bathroom. I planted a kiss on the top of his head before carefully sliding out from under him and quietly leaving the room. After using the bathroom, I headed straight for the kitchen in search of my morning coffee.

Mikey was sitting at the counter, eating cereal. He looked up when I entered the kitchen. I was too asleep to notice the corners of his mouth twitch upward in a knowing smile.

“Morning,” I mumbled, pulling a cup from the cupboard and filling it with coffee.

“Good morning to you!” he said cheerily. “Sleep well?”

“I did and you?”

“Not as well as I am sure you did,” he grinned broadly, but I ignored the implication of his words, taking a sip of my coffee and almost burning my tongue.

“Where are Mom and Dad?” I asked as casually as possible, actually fishing for information. I didn’t want to have to explain to my parents that I had a secret sleepover buddy the night before.

“Out. So your boyfriend can come out.”

I put the cup down on the table and smiled guiltily at him.

“Yeah, I heard you,” he said, pointing an accusing finger at me. “You know if you are going to sneak boys into your room in the middle of the night you could at least take care to do it quietly.”

“I did! You’ve got some sixth sense or something.”

“I’m awesome like that.” He was way too smug for his own good.

“Good morning.” Adam stood in the doorway looking adorable with his sleepy blue eyes and bed-head.

“Morning,” Mikey and I greeted him simultaneously.

“Coffee?” I asked, already getting him a cup without waiting for an answer.

“That would be great, thanks.” He slipped onto a chair next to Mikey and leaned forward on the counter. “I don’t know if we’ve met. I’m Adam.”

“Nice to meet you, Gerard’s boyfriend,” Mikey said, being a little ass. “I’m Mikey, the younger Way.”

“Ignore him,” I told Adam, putting the fresh cup of coffee in front of him.

Adam chuckled. “I can live with that name.”

We made eye contact and in that moment it was official. Adam was my boyfriend. Mikey didn’t miss the little moment we were having and got up from his seat.

“Get a room,” he teased, putting his bowl in the dishwasher and laughing as he left the room.

I leaned on the counter across from Adam. “What do you want to do today?”

“Get breakfast at IHOP,” he said eagerly. “We can each order a mountain of pancakes and just hang out. I love IHOP,” he confessed excitedly. “My parents take me there every single Saturday. I’m totally breaking tradition by ditching them to be here with you today.”

I chuckled. “It’s for a good cause.”

“A very good cause,” he smiled in agreement.

*

Frank’s POV

I’ve been calling Gerard all day, on his cell phone, the landline, but nothing. Mikey couldn’t tell me where he was and Ivy didn’t know anything either. A guy couldn’t just disappear off the face of the earth. He had to be somewhere. He could ignore my messages and my calls all he wanted, but he couldn’t avoid me if we happened to bump into each other, even if it was premeditated.

My feet carried me all the way to Gerard’s house where I sat down on the porch steps and waited. I didn’t care if I had to wait all day. He couldn’t avoid me forever and there was something important I needed to ask him. If he agreed to join the band, I was sure it would solve all of our problems and we would be able to spend a lot of time together.

I noticed him approaching. His messy black hair was clearly visible over the neighbor’s shrubs. I could hear his footsteps and then he turned onto the footpath to wear I was sitting. I stood up and dusted off my jeans. It soon became evident though that he hadn’t noticed me. Clearly his mind was somewhere else. He looked cheerful to say the least.

“Hey.” I greeted him, finally drawing his attention to me.

He looked up and stopped dead in his tracks. “Frank.” He obviously hadn’t been expecting to see me there.

“I’ve been trying to get a hold of you all day, but you’ve been ignoring me. Are you still mad at me?”

“Why would I be mad at you?” he asked dumbfounded. His hands patted the pockets of his jeans and searched inside his jacket pockets. “Sorry, I must have forgotten to take my phone when I left the house this morning.”

“Oh.” That caught me up short. I thought for sure that things still weren’t right between us. Apparently I had been wrong.

“What are you doing here?” he wanted to know.

“Well, I haven’t seen you since Monday and like I said, you weren’t answering your phone and there’s something important that I need to ask you.”

His eyes widened slightly at this. He looked down, suddenly looking guilty, and kicked at the pebbles beneath his feet. This had me somewhat suspicious, because something was going on with him, but I didn’t want to ask in case I said something wrong. Instead I focused on the reason I was there.

“I was thinking and the band agreed that you should join us. I’ve heard you sing and you’ll be great in the band.” I was ready to put up a fight for what I wanted, thinking that he would decline, considering our complicated relationship, but he simply shrugged and said, “Sure.”

“Sure?”

“Yeah,” he nodded. “It will be cool.”

“Cool!” I exclaimed, a smile splitting my face from ear to ear. “You’re in and you’re not mad at me.” I was ecstatic and would have let out an exclamation had it not been for… Come to think of it, there was no reason not to cheer. “Whoo!” I all but punched the air.

“No,” he chuckled. “I’m not mad at you. I’ve just been busy.”

“Of course, with the new job,” I guessed.

The guilty look was back again. “Yes, with my job.”

What was up with him? He was so composed and easily amenable. That wasn’t the Gerard I knew. At the very least I had expected him to point out that we might be at risk of exposing ourselves to unnecessary temptation if we were in a band together, but nothing, not even that. Don’t get me wrong, I was over the moon that he agreed to it, but there was something else going on and I was dying to know what it was.

“What is up with you?”

“Nothing,” he replied too quickly. “I didn’t get much sleep so I’m a bit scatterbrained. Also, I haven’t had any lunch. I’m starving.”

I was desperate to not part ways with him yet. “Come with me. You can have dinner with us.”

“Hmm.” He hesitated. “I haven’t been home all day. Rain check?”

I frowned, disappointed and a little annoyed by the way he was acting. He could have at least come up with a better excuse. “Are you sure you’re not mad at me?”

“Frank, I swear. I am not mad at you.” He ducked his head a little to look me in the eyes. “We’ll talk tomorrow, okay? When I come to band practice?”

“Fine, sure, whatever.” I mumbled. “I just really want things between us to go back to normal.”

“They will,” he assured me. “I promise,” he said over her shoulder as he headed up the steps and into the house, leaving me standing there alone.

I was definitely missing something. I would ask Ivy or Mikey. They should be able to tell me what Gerard was hiding and why he was acting so strange. It bothered me the entire walk home and was still on my mind when I went to bed later that night. Maybe he will be his old self again at band practice the next day. I hoped.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did this totally suck? Idek!


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sooo... Gerard has a new boyfriend...

**Adam’s POV**

It was a little after seven when I showed up at the Iero house. I could hear the sound of music coming from the side of the house. My finger pressed down on the doorbell button and soon enough Mrs. Iero appeared at the door.

“Adam. This is a nice surprise. I haven’t seen you in a long time. Come on in.” She stepped aside in order for me to enter.

“Hello, Mrs. Iero. I was told that there would be a band playing somewhere around here.” I offered her a smile.

“You were told right. The whole gang is here. Ivy and all Frank’s friends and the twins. I should really put my foot down with this being a school night and all, but the bunch of them always go everywhere together. I would be lying if I say that this isn’t a typical evening in my house.”

I chuckled, following her to the garage. She didn’t bother knocking, because they wouldn’t hear her anyway. Instead she opened the door and tapped Ivy’s shoulder who was sitting within reach. The latter looked up and smiled when she saw me. Her mother nodded and then left, shutting the door behind her again. Ivy reached out to grab my wrist and pulled me around in order to sit down next to her on the couch. A lot of eyes rested on me, everyone probably curious about the newcomer.

This was my first time at a band practice. Gerard had invited me the day before and I would have arrived sooner had it not been for an early dinner with my parents, because they had a meeting right now at seven. But apparently being a little late wasn’t the end of the world, because Gerard informed me that these practices sometimes stretched over three hours. They would warm up with familiar songs like a couple of covers or some of their old material then they would eat and finally they would work on some new material. They were good.

“It’s just the two of us tonight,” Ivy told me over the loud music.

“Is that strange?”

“Gerard’s brother Mikey is usually here as well. I think he likes Scary,” she finished with a knowing look on her face. “It’s just that normally we have more of an audience.”

“The two of us are more than enough.”

“Yes we are!” she happily agreed.

When it was dinner time, Ivy dragged Gerard upstairs to help her order pizza for everyone, leaving me seated on the couch alone. It didn’t last too long though, because her little brother sauntered over and sat down on the couch next to me. I didn’t know Frank very well. We met once before and Ivy talks about him a lot, but other than that he was just a punk kid that hung out with the biggest group of misfits at school.

“Hi,” he greeted me with a smile. He was kind of sweaty after playing for almost an hour. “Adam right? You’re Ivy’s friend. I’m Frank.”

“Yes, we’ve met.” I nodded. “But that was a long time ago.”

“I know. I’m glad to see you here. What do you think?” He motioned towards the band area where they had played no more than five minutes ago.

“You guys come as advertised,” I smiled recalling both Gerard and Ivy pestering me about coming to check them out. “You’re good.”

He laughed happily. “Great. Thanks. I appreciate it. Positive feedback always is. I’ll have to thank Ivy for the good word.”

“Both she and Gerard think you guys are great.”

He looked surprised by my words and it soon became clear why. “I wasn’t aware that you and Gerard knew each other. I assume Ivy introduced you to one another.”

I nodded in confirmation.

“That’s cool.”

“Hello, Boy Toy,” Scarlet exclaimed, plopping down between the two of us. She was looking at me expectantly, the endearment obviously having been meant for me.

I couldn’t help a little chuckle escaping from my lips. “Hi, Scarlet.”

She was Frank’s age, but for some unknown reason she was in my senior biology class.

“What brings you to our humble little band practice? Did Ivy promise to do your math homework for a week?”

“No, but if she did, it would be biology homework and not math.”

She made a face. “I really hate that class. The subject itself is fine, but that teacher…” She faked a few gagging sounds. “Anyway, you were saying.” She batted her eyelashes at me, waiting for an answer.

She never stopped talking and if you asked me she was nothing short of crazy, but you had to love her, one way or the other.

“Gerard invited me.”

“Then you guys know each other well?” Frank spoke up for the first time since his cousin’s arrival. He was leaning forward in order to look at me as he asked this.

“I think well enough. He’s my boyfriend,” I announced proudly. I wasn’t sure if Gerard had shared the information with his quote-unquote friends yet.

Frank started choking on his side of the couch. Scary rubbed his back sympathetically, but she didn’t pay much attention to him. Instead she looked at me excitedly.

“Our new front man is running up quite a winning streak. New band. New boyfriend. I knew he had potential.” Her head turned towards her choking cousin. “Frank, are you alright?”

He slammed a fist on his chest and choked out. “Gum.”

“Come on.” She got to her feet and pulled him up. “Congrats, Adam.” She said to me before leading Frank away in the direction of the kitchen.

**Frank’s POV**

I drank an entire glass of water before being able to breathe somewhat again. Scary looked at me without a trace of sympathy and this irked me. Didn’t she care if I died? I couldn’t focus on that though.

“His fucking boyfriend?” I exploded. “He hasn’t known Gerard for five fucking seconds and now he’s his boyfriend?” There were no words to begin to explain how I felt in that moment. Betrayed. Hurt. Stunned. This was the last thing on earth I had expected to happen.

“Easy with the language!” I knew she was simply trying to lighten my mood, but it took everything in me not to tell her to piss off. I wasn’t angry at her and she was only trying to help.

“And why the fuck didn’t he tell me?” We were supposed to be friends. He should tell me when something major happened in his life, like him getting a fucking boyfriend.

“Maybe because he was afraid about how you would fucking react.” She motioned towards me with a tell all look on her face. Scary swore as much as I did, but I knew that she threw that one in there for my benefit. “Or maybe because it had nothing to do with you.”

That comment warranted the dirtiest look I could muster.

“So what?” Scary asked shortly, becoming bored with the conversation. “Gerard’s a cool guy and if he likes Adam then why the hell not?”

I shouldn’t have said it, but it was out before I could stop myself. “Gerard is supposed to like me!”

“Okay, little dude.” Scary took a hold of my shoulders and looked me square in the eyes. “Time for an intervention. Gerard did like you, but you didn’t want him. Time to move on.”

She stepped back, looking impressed with herself and annoyed with me at the same time.

“I did want him.”

“Frank, do you still have a girlfriend.”

I bristled with anger. Everyone always threw that in my face. Yes, I had a girlfriend whom I loved very much, but I couldn’t help that I had a monster fucking crush on my best friend.

“Yes.” I hissed in response.

“Then that settles it,” she said with a tone of finality before turning around and leaving me alone in the kitchen.

I craved a cigarette more than anything at that moment and made my way outside. The motions from there were automatic. Cigarette, mouth, lighter, but before I could light it, Gerard and Ivy came around the corner laughing. My hands lowered as I watched them come closer from the front yard.

“Hey, Frank.”

“Hey, Frank.”

My mind went blank for a split second and then the only thought that went through my head was that I didn’t want to be there. I didn’t want to be around Gerard. He had a boyfriend now. Things were different. He was off limits. Scary was right, I needed to get over it. Fuck it. There was nothing to get over. I had a stunning girlfriend. If I had really wanted to be with Gerard, I would have been, but there we were, both with other people. We were nothing more than friends. Friends.

“I should really quit,” I muttered, removing the cigarette from my mouth and retreating back inside.

Fr some unknown reason, the first person I sought out happened to be my least favorite person in the world. “Congratulations.”

Adam looked up at me startled, clearly not having expected me to come from behind.

“With you and Gerard I mean,” I clarified. My eyes caught Gerard come into the garage and I couldn’t help feeling hurt that he had found someone else. “I hope you guys are happy.”

“Oh, thanks.”

“Plus, now the band has one more fan even if it is only by obligation,” I joked.

“At least you guys don’t suck. I know of a few people who saw you play at the skate fest who were really into you. I remember Gerard running off in order to see you guys play.”

They’ve known each other longer than I thought. “That was a great show, although it would have been better had Gerard already been a part of the band back then. He has an amazing voice. It’s good that he found someone. He deserves to be happy.”

“I think so,” Adam agreed, looking around the room, his eyes easily finding his boyfriend.

“You guys must like each other a lot if you’re dating after knowing each other such a short period of time.” Maybe I was fishing, but it didn’t matter. Maybe it was the fact that I thought Gerard cared more than to just jump into a relationship with the first person to come along.

“We instantly got along. We were kind of on the same wave right from the start. Things kind of just happened easily.”

Like with Gerard and I. Obviously he was an easily likable person. You had to love him. There was no other way.

“I’m going to go over there,” he nodded in the direction where Gerard and Bob were talking before walking away. “Thanks for the chat.”

“You too,” I mumbled sarcastically to myself.

I watched as he went to stand next to Gerard, who smiled at him and gave his hand a quick squeeze. This was going to be a long ass night and I haven’t even had dinner yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter will be better and it will have more substance, I promise.  
> xoxo


	12. Chapter 12

**Gerard’s POV**

I was sitting at my desk working on lyrics for a new song and Adam was leaning against my bed, sitting on the floor and doing his homework. This was how things were when I wasn’t working or busy with band practice. I liked it. It was comfortable and once we were bored, there were other ways to keep ourselves busy… I smiled at the thought and looked over at Adam.

“You’re staring,” he said with a smile of his own, not looking up from his books.

“No, I’m not.”

“Yes, you are.” He looked up and his blue eyes met mine.

“I’m writing lyrics.” I pretended to turn my attention back to the little notebook in front of me, but all my senses were focused on him.

“You’re a terrible liar,” he said.

“On that point you and Ivy agree.” I turned in my seat in order to face him.

“We actually agree on a lot of things. For instance, we both like you.”

I couldn’t help the smug smile on my face. It was always nice to hear that someone was into you even if you already knew it.

“I have something I want to ask you.”

“I’m already your boyfriend, you know?” I joked.

He chuckled quietly. “I know that and I’m very happy about that, but that’s not it.” His entire demeanor turned serious. I had no idea what it could possibly be right up until he asked the question. “Is there something going on between you and Frank?”

I frowned deeply at the question. Frank needed a brain to mouth filter or a fucking ass kicking. “No, why? What did he say?”

“Nothing exactly.” Adam looked like he regretted asking the question. “It’s just that the other night when I was at band practice, he and I talked.”

I nodded, remembering seeing the two of them in conversation, but I never imagined that Frank would be cruel enough to say something to Adam about our history. I hadn’t had the chance to tell him myself yet.

“It’s not so much what he said as the way he said it. He idolizes you, you know? Then there was the way he reacted when he found out we were dating. I don’t know. He kind of acted like a jealous boyfriend. I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it and if I’m wrong, please ignore me.”

I shook my head. I probably couldn’t blame this on Frank. I should have told Adam sooner. “There is nothing going on between me and Frank. I promise you. I don’t know if you know about their little parties and the games they play. Well, Frank and I have had one or two encounters during the game seven minutes in heaven, but Frank has a girlfriend and I have you. We’re just friends, but I’ll talk to him.”

“I don’t want to make things awkward between you guys,” he hurriedly said.

“Don’t worry about it. And I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about it sooner.”

“That’s okay. I believe you. Maybe if you spent more time talking about him like the way Ivy is always talking about you, then I would have worried. I only wanted to clarify it,” he explained, the seriousness gone from his face.

“Good. I’m glad you know now.” I was still going to talk to Frank though. He had no right to be jealous about this. He couldn’t complicate things simply because he felt territorial. My relationship with Adam was none of his business.

**Frank’s POV**

“Oh, so now I’m the bad guy? You could have given me a heads up or something. Do you have any idea how I felt when all of a sudden out of nowhere this new guy shows up and apparently he’s your boyfriend?” I understood that Gerard was mad, but I hadn’t done anything wrong. I didn’t say anything to Adam that I shouldn’t have. I wasn’t that stupid and it wasn’t like I hated Gerard.

“Yes, I guess it kind of felt the way I felt when Lisa showed up at the arcade that day.”

 _Fuck, we were back to that._ Of course we were. I never thought revenge was his style. “Congratulations, you got your revenge. The taste of my own medicine is bitter,” I spat.

He sighed in aggravation. “I’m not that petty, Frank. None of this had anything to do with you. I didn’t tell you because I knew how you would react.” He stated. “And maybe, I don’t know, for some reason I thought you might be hurt.”

“Wow, you suck at sparing my feelings if that had been your intention.” I realized that I was acting like a brat, but I was in fact jealous and I couldn’t help it.

“Screw you.”

We were standing in my bedroom not making eye contact, each one of us stewing in his own anger. I wanted to punch Adam in the face every time I thought of him with Gerard, but of course I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t kick Gerard’s ass, because that would achieve absolutely nothing either. I wanted to be happy for him, but I just wasn’t feeling it.

“You need to let me go,” he practically begged, breaking the silence. “Because I’m trying to move on, but you won’t let me and it’s not fair.”

“I’m trying!” I snapped. “Do you think I want to feel this way? Do you think this is easy for me, because it’s not! You think this is a one sided thing and that you’re the only one stuck in this…situation.” I was frustrated. “I was there that night too and I liked you! I liked you a fucking lot. I remember waking up the morning after unable to wait to see you again. And yes, maybe I was wrong under the circumstances, but I didn’t ask for this. It’s hard, no, it’s fucking impossible, okay? I’m mad at myself and at you and pretty much everyone. Let’s blame my teenage hormones.” I mumbled that last part more to myself. “I want to be happy for you. I don’t want to be jealous of you and your new boyfriend, but unfortunately that’s just the way things are.” I threw my hands up in the air in defeat. I hated the fact that Gerard looked surprised by this.

“I love Lisa.” I said with conviction, meaning it more than anything in the world. Lavender was my favorite scent since I met her, because her hair was always soft and smelled of lavender. Then there were her beautiful blue eyes and her heart was the biggest of anyone I’ve ever met. She made me a better person, although admittedly I would never be good enough to actually deserve her and I realized that.

As could be expected, Gerard didn’t appreciate my statement. It was easy to tell from the way his mouth twisted and his eyes were very emotive.

“I’m telling you this so you understand that I’m not doing any of this to hurt you. That was never my intention. It’s not what I want.” I deserved a prize for all my honesty today. “I know that that’s unfortunately how things have turned out. Everything we’ve been doing… We keep hurting each other and I know that it’s mostly my fault and I’m sorry.”

His eyes never left mine for even one second and this was a relief. He was listening and he believed me.

“We need to be honest with each other. We have to tell each other these things if we want to have any chance at this friendship. I want to know if you get a boyfriend even if you’re scared about the way I would react.” I wanted this friendship to work and I was willing to roll with the punches in order for that to be the case. “It’s going to suck, but it’s necessary if we’re ever going to move on. I mean maybe if we share everything with one another each one of us will realize that the other is happy and then step back. We’d let go.”

“I hear what you’re saying and I get why you think the way you do, but maybe it would be better if we parted ways for a while,” he suggested instead.

My heart sank. That’s not what I wanted at all. “No!”

“Frank…”

“You just got a boyfriend. You can’t do this to me.” I hated the desperation in my own voice. He was already moving on and now he wanted to do so without me. Yes, I had to move on. Yes, things would be easier. But somehow I couldn’t picture my life without him.

“It’s the only way…” he started to say, but I shook my head.

“No. No way. Over my dead body.”

“Come on, Frank.” He was trying to reason with me, but I wouldn’t have any of it. If he wouldn’t do it for me then maybe someone else.

“You can’t let the band down. We have the gig this week and everyone’s counting on you. It wouldn’t be fair to let everyone else down simply because we can’t get over seven minutes in…” I was holding onto his upper arms and staring straight into his eyes and I gulped. “Heaven.”

We stood there staring at each other for a few moments before Gerard let out a small breath. “Frank…”

I looked away. He was about to break my heart and I couldn’t look at him while he was doing it. I didn’t have the courage and I was fighting hard against the sudden feeling of abandonment that washed over me like waves.

“I’ll do the show,” he finally said and my head shot up. “I’ll do the show and we’ll see how it goes.”

“Thank you.” It was all I could manage to get out, because my throat was completely constricted with emotion.

“Don’t thank me yet.” He stepped back from me and I could see that he still had every intention of running. “I’ll see you at band practice.”

“Gerard!” I called after him as he was about to leave the room.

He stopped and turned back to look at me, waiting for me to say what was on my mind.

“I always thought that if you and I had met under different circumstances or if we had never been shoved into that closet together that things would have been different, would have been easier. We would have been best friends.” I managed a small smile in his direction.

He chewed on the inside of his lower lip and his eyes narrowed slightly. “That’s where you’re wrong. It wouldn’t have changed anything.”

My smile faltered and Gerard disappeared out the door. He was right. It didn’t have anything to do with a stupid party game. I had noticed him the second he had stepped through the front door with Ivy. The damn game had simply been the catalyst.


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Go. You’re no longer welcome here.”

I sat down on my bed, staring into space. My mind refused to process what just happened, because what happened was that Gerard and I broke up even though we were never officially together. How messed up was that?

“Frank?”

I sighed inwardly. Great. Of course Ivy overheard everything and _of course_ she was there to lecture me.

“What was that all about?”

My head turned slightly in her direction. “Why do you bother asking when you probably heard every word anyway?”

“Frank, you have to stop this, whatever it is that you are doing.”

I knew that. “I’m not doing anything,” I snapped.

“Look.” She came deeper into the room. “I know this sucks and you don’t know exactly how to handle everything.” She motioned with one of her hands. “And honestly, I have no idea what is going on in Gerard’s head either, but you guys can’t keep doing this. I hate that you guys are putting yourselves through this, but if you are willing to live with it then that’s your issue, but I won’t let you hurt Adam. He doesn’t deserve this. I’ll tell Gerard the same.”

I guess golden boy wasn’t so golden in her eyes anymore after all. “Don’t worry about it, Sis. Gerard just ended it.” I dropped back on the bed and looked up at the ceiling. I’ve barely known him any time at all, but still I let him have such a big effect on me. I needed to get back to my old self. I used to be carefree. Now almost everything I thought or did revolved around him.

“Oh,” was her only response. I heard her move and then she was lying down on the bed beside me. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

I snorted. “Please, you have been against the two of us getting together from the second he and I met.”

“It was never about the two of you per se. I simply took into account the circumstances like the fact that you have a girlfriend and broke Gerard’s heart.”

“See, there you go again.” I said accusingly, propping myself up on an elbow and glaring down at her. “You haven’t been on my side once throughout this whole situation. It’s Gerard and it’s Adam. What about me?”

“I’m in this too, you know? I was in love with Gerard too.”

I fell back down with a sigh. I didn’t forget. I’ve never forgotten. I was jealous of my sister’s relationship with Gerard right up until I found out about him and Adam. Now I suddenly missed that unfounded jealousy. At least with Ivy I never had anything to worry about, because Gerard wasn’t into girls. Adam was a whole different story. I would never admit it out loud, but he was hot and then he had that whole nice guy thing going for him. This must be what Gerard feels like with Lisa in the picture. There was nothing to be done about any of that now.

“You should feel bad, because all of this is your fault. You brought him here.” I stated, but there was a hint of humor in my voice. I didn’t blame her for any of this. All she’s been trying to do is help and keep everyone happy.

There was a pause before she replied. “You’re right. Dammit! Then again, how was I supposed to know that we were both going to fall for him? Besides, I never would have dreamed that you and I would have the same taste in boys.”

“You’re telling me.” I rolled my eyes. “There’s something about him, though…”

“Everything?” she offered with a smile.

“Yeah.”

“When you think about it, it’s his damn fault. Why couldn’t he suck like half the people I know?” Ivy asked in slight annoyance.

I had to laugh at this. “That’s hardly fair.”

“Let’s stop talking about him.”

I glanced down at her bemused, because she was being so Ivy.

“I’ll meet someone better and you already have someone better. Fuck him.”

I burst out laughing. “I love you, you know that?”

“I do,” she said with a broad grin. “But it’s always nice to hear it.”

**

I was annoyed. No, I was pissed off. A better description would be to say that I was fucking livid. Despite promising me that he wouldn’t let the band down, Gerard hasn’t been to a single band practice since and we were backstage preparing for our gig without him. Instead of being excited, everyone was irritated. I could tell. Scary was moody and no one dared to go near her. Everyone else handled their emotions better, thank goodness, and were simply silent, sitting around anxiously. It wasn’t right.

“Hey, are you ready?” Lisa asked.

I nodded. “Yes. I am.” I shook my arms a little bit in an attempt to relax. “Yes, I am and I’m excited.”

“Good, because I know you’re going to be great.” She offered me a reassuring smile.

I barely noticed this, seeing Gerard come into the room. How could he possibly have the audacity to just show up like nothing was wrong?

“Excuse me.” I gave Lisa’s shoulder a gentle squeeze before stepping around her and marching right up to Gerard. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“Frank.” He was taken aback by my sudden hostility.

It was irrelevant why I was mad, whether it was because he let the band down or because he let me down, it didn’t matter.

“You fucking dick! You promised me.”

“I can explain…”

“You know what? Screw you! You don’t deserve to be in this band and you don’t deserve to know any of the people here. They are all better than you and they deserve better.” I wasn’t holding back and I probably said some things that would have been better left unsaid, but I didn’t care. In my opinion, he had it coming.

“Frank.” He looked stunned, but at the same time guilt stricken. “I’m so sorry.” The apology was sincere enough, but I disregarded it completely.

“Go. You’re no longer welcome here.” I was hurt and disappointed. I always thought I could count on him no matter what. I guess the better you got to know someone, the clearer their flaws became. I turned away from him even though I was itching to punch him in the face.

“Hold on.” It was Bob’s voice that forced me to turn back to my ex-best friend. “I’m not going to lie to you, man, what you did wasn’t cool and we’re all mad as hell at you, but the show starts in like ten minutes and regardless of how fucked up this is, we would still like you to go on stage with us.”

 _Bob, what the hell are you doing?_ I glared at him. He had no right to speak for everybody.

“Are you sure?” Gerard checked. “I can go.”

“Just do the damn show with us,” Scary growled. “I fucking hate you and I seriously want to kick your ass, but whatever.”

I couldn’t believe my ears. Traitors, all of them!

“We’re better with him,” Scary said close by my ear. “Relax. We’ll deal with the issue later.”

“I don’t want to.” I stormed out of the tiny backstage room we had been shoved into and down the hall.

**

Gerard’s POV

I ran after Frank, because he obviously wasn’t okay and I knew that it was entirely my fault. Maybe I could have handled the whole situation differently. No, I definitely could have handled it better.

“Frank!” I called after him, but he ignored me.

I eventually caught up to him and grabbed a hold of his shirt.

“Get off of me!” he hissed, shoving me away.

“Frank, I’m sorry.” I tried apologizing again.

“Fuck you, okay!” he snapped, glaring at me. He was hurt and now he was lashing out. “I fucked up. I didn’t tell you about Lisa, yes, but this is bullshit!” he yelled upset. “When are you going to be done?” he demanded angrily.

I stepped forward and put my hands on his shoulders. By some miracle he didn’t shake me off.

“When are you going to stop getting back at me? You win, okay? You hurt me!”

That stung, like someone had hit me in the face. He thought I was doing all of this to hurt him. I never realized… My grip on his shoulders tightened and he started to fight against me.

“I know I was an asshole, but you’re taking it too far. And I fucking hate you.” Angry tears ran down his cheeks. “Congratulations, I’m a mess and it’s all your doing! Are you satisfied or would you like to have another go, because I’m open!” He shrugged me off and turned away from me.

Sorry wasn’t going to make this better, but it was all I had. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to hurt you.”

“I apologized until I was blue in the face and you still gave me a hard time. Now one apology from you is supposed to make it all better? Are you going to tell me now that you only did it to take care of yourself? When I did that I was the bad guy.” Frank shot down my apology with very valid arguments. “Well?” he demanded still upset. “Let’s hear it, this grand apology of yours.”

My shoulders slumped and my gaze dropped guiltily to the ground. “I don’t have one. All I have is an excuse, but you already made it clear that it wouldn’t be good enough.”

“You were right, Gerard,” he said, angrily wiping away his tears. “This friendship isn’t going to work and we should just end it now.” He looked me dead in the eyes as he said this. “We have a show to do.”

He turned away from me, heading back in the direction we had come from. I felt bad. He was right, I had promised to stick with the band and I had let everyone down. It seemed like the right thing to do at the time, keep my distance from Frank to get a grip in my emotions and also to not make things worse with Adam. He didn’t need any more reason to think that there was anything going on between me and Frank.

Without realizing it, I reached out and grabbed Frank’s hand, preventing him from going anywhere.

“Don’t,” he said threateningly, glaring at my hand.

“I’m sorry.”

I sighed deeply and then met my eyes. “I know you are.”

The tension between us picked up again, but it was a different type of tension this time and we both hurriedly pulled our hands back. We returned to the others without saying anything more.

“Finally, we’re about to go on!”

“I’m sorry for letting you guys down. I promise it won’t happen again,” I apologized loudly to everyone hoping that they would be able to forgive me. Frank’s words earlier had hit home about them deserving better. It was true. I shouldn’t let my personal issues get in the way of their dreams or even my own.

“Hey, did any of you see Lisa?”

My attention turned to Frank who was standing in the middle of the room, looking hopeful.

“She was here a minute ago,” Ray responded, looking around for her and then shrugged. “She probably went to find a place to watch the show from.”

“Probably,” Frank muttered, grabbing his guitar from its case and getting ready to go on stage.

I could tell that he wasn’t too sure about this, but there was no point in asking him about it. Instead I decided to focus on getting ready for the show myself. I didn’t have an instrument, but it always felt like that left me more vulnerable to the crowd. I wanted to put on the best damn show of my life to prove to everyone that I still belonged in the band. It was one of the good things I had going for me and didn’t want to lose it yet.

 


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Am I losing you to Gerard?”

**Frank’s POV**

The show was a huge success, in our opinions at least. That’s why we found ourselves hanging around afterwards to celebrate, if that was the right term for it. The small crowd had participated and everything had gone smoothly despite the rocky start, what with Gerard skipping band practices and all. He was straight back in everyone’s good graces now and all of that was long forgotten. It didn’t matter anymore, because we were doing something right. This was the best response we had received from people since we had started the band, which meant that Gerard had been the thing missing. He wasn’t going anywhere. I wasn’t complaining. After all, that had been the reason I had asked him to join the band. He was a great singer and his songs were brilliant. Of course at the time, spending a lot of time with him didn’t hurt either.

“I have a very good feeling about this,” Ray stated, looking proud as hell. “That was a great show.”

The twins were off getting a jug of beer, since they were the only ones who could actually pass as twenty-one-year-olds.

“If every night is like this, we are going to have the best time ever and get paid to do it too,” Bob added.

I smiled wanly at him and checked my phone for any messages. I wasn’t really into this whole night. It was odd since I had been looking forward to it for the longest time. The show itself had been a blast, but celebrating it felt like something I had to do instead of something I wanted to do. Honestly, there was somewhere else I rather would have been at that moment.

“There we go,” Scary announced, placing the pitcher of beer down in the middle of the table while Caitlyn handed out mugs to each of us. Everyone filled their mugs in turn and then Gerard toasted to us and then made a wish for many more shows like this one and better.

I checked my phone again, but there was nothing. I was edgy. I wanted to go see Lisa. Something was wrong. She always wished me good luck before a show and tonight she had simply disappeared. Something must have happened. As long as everything with her was okay.

“Hey, Frank. Where’s your head at?” Scary wanted to know from the other side of the table.

“Nowhere. Just thinking about the show,” I lied and then tried a little harder to act interested in what was going on around me.

*

It was completely dark. Then again it was nearly midnight. Everyone was still “celebrating”. I couldn’t fake interest anymore and snuck away, because they were all too drunk to notice anyway.

I was outside Lisa’s house. There was no way I could go to bed without checking in on her. I had tried calling her earlier, but she didn’t answer. The house was dark, but I expected it to be. Instead of waking the entire household by ringing the bell, I texted her that I was at the front door. If I had to wait all night, I would. Fortunately, it was only about a minute before I heard a key turn in the lock and then the front door swung open to reveal Lisa in her pajamas.

“Please tell me you have a reason for being here in the middle of the night.”

“You.”

Her long brown hair was pulled up into a messy bun and I could tell that she had already been in bed although not yet asleep.

“It’s late, Frank. We can talk in the morning.”

“No, we can’t,” I said hurriedly, realizing that she was about to close the door. “The fact that you’re about to slam the door in my face proves it.”

“I wasn’t going to slam the door…”

“Semantics.” I waved it off. “The point is, you’re mad at me.”

“You can’t know that. I haven’t said anything,” she stated, stepping out of the house and now standing under the porch light with me.

“I’m right though, aren’t I?”

She nodded in confirmation, breaking our eye contact.

“You disappeared without a word. You never not give me a kiss and tell me good luck before a show and then tonight before our biggest gig yet, you ran out on me,” I explained how I knew.

“You guessed, because I was suddenly a bad girlfriend?” She seemed somewhat incredulous.

“Please, tell me what’s the matter.” I stepped closer to her and took her hands in mine.

She looked hesitant, but decided to come out with it. “Are you in love with Gerard?”

My face went pale and I swallowed, wondering how the hell she possibly could have guessed that. “I’m not.”

“Are you sure, because lately you’ve been acting differently. At first I thought that maybe you’ve realized that our differences were too much for you to handle and I worried that we would break up.”

“That’s ridiculous!” I exclaimed and then lowered my voice. “We’re not even close to breaking up and what differences?” I demanded. “You’re like my perfect other half.”

“Frank, we’ve been struggling with this whole I’m-popular-you’re-not situation. You don’t like spending time with my friends.”

I made a face. “That’s not true. The girls are fine.”

“Fine? They’re fine. And what about the guys?”

“Sorry I can’t forget that they used to beat the crap out of me,” I said sarcastically, turning to face the street.

“Fine then.” I heard her say. “Obviously I was wrong about that. I figured that much out by myself. I tried to think of what else it could possibly be then I realized that the only thing that’s changed was Gerard. The changes in you just happened to coincide with his arrival.”

She was too damn smart for her own good, but I couldn’t blame her for figuring it out. There shouldn’t have been anything to figure out in the first place.

“Tell me the truth, Frank. Am I losing you to Gerard?” She sounded sad as she asked this and the blood in my veins boiled all over again, recalling the incident between me and Gerard earlier that night. I don’t recall ever being that angry in my entire life.

“No,” I said with certainty, turning back to look at her.

“Are you sure, because I think you’re in love with him. You’re always complaining about him or at the very least you’re constantly talking about him. Tonight you left me to talk to him which would have been okay, but he always has your attention and when you stormed off, Gerard was the one who ran after you. That was when I realized what it was that I have been missing.”

I cupped her face in my hands and looked deep into her eyes. “You are not losing me to Gerard. I promise.” I vowed. “Gerard became my best friend in a very short amount of time. It was new for me, because it was the first time something like that happened to me. Yes, Scary and I are best friends, but we’re family and we grew up together. All the other guys are great, but it’s not the same with them. Gerard and I bonded over similar interest and we could talk. Unfortunately, because it all happened so quickly, I never noticed that he has his own flaws and now that I’m becoming acquainted with them it’s kind of hard for me.”

“Oh.” That was all she managed to say after that.

“Also,” I had to tell her. “We were shoved into a closet for seven minutes in heaven once or twice during parties, but I haven’t played that game in the longest time and honestly, I am so over it.” The last time I had played it had been the last time Gerard and I had been making out in a closet. “The only person I am kissing is you and I’m sorry if I’ve been a jerk.”

I pulled her into a hug feeling a million times lighter having told her all of that. Maybe that was all I had needed to do in order to be able to move on from this whole thing.

“You haven’t been a jerk,” Lisa mumbled against my shirt. “Just distant. That’s all.”

I felt a pang of guilt, because she deserved better. I recalled meeting Lisa and how great it had been. I had been a very troubled teen and she managed to knock some sense into me. Actually, I willingly changed in an attempt to be good enough for her, but I still wasn’t there yet. I remembered getting the shit beaten out of me when the popular guys got wind of my interest in her. It became a daily ritual at that time. Little had they realized that they had pushed us closer together. It ended when Lisa had two of them expelled for bullying. I still didn’t know how she managed to do that, because those guys usually got off easy with nothing but detention or suspension at most. Nonetheless, I would never be able to express my gratitude for her standing up for me like that.

“I promise I will do better and you don’t ever have to worry about me letting you go, because that’s never going to happen.”


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “It’s not your fault that you’re infatuated with Frank. He’s not even here and everyone’s fighting over him."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Swift updates are usually followed by a long waiting period. I think we've reached that point, because honestly, I don't know where to go from here, haha. Plus, I'm going to be busy as hell. So enjoy this chapter. Hopefully it's enough to hold you out until the next one.  
> xoxo

**Gerard’s POV**

To a bystander we probably looked like a group of teens on our way to do no good, but in reality we were on our way to band practice. Actually, I was on my way to band practice, but I had an entire entourage. Mikey, Adam and Ivy were all walking down the street with me on our way to the Iero house. I figured that it would be a good idea to go to every single band practice from now on. Everyone had been really cool about me skipping out on the others, but something told me they wouldn’t be so forgiving if I pulled the same stunt twice. Besides, I couldn’t avoid Frank forever.

We haven’t spoken again since the gig. There had been that heated conversation before the show and everything that followed after that had been nothing important, just simple exchanges of pleasantries. Things have reached a point where we either had to move forward or move in separate directions.

I wasn’t going to make a big deal out of it. If Frank wanted to throw another tantrum, that was his problem. I wouldn’t entertain his fits anymore. Adam was going to be present today anyway which meant that he was going to have my attention instead. Mikey would also be there for backup if necessary.

“I’m glad to see that you listen,” Adam stated, walking next to me with his hand in mine. “When I told you to give it your all and find band mates who are good at playing their instruments.”

I recalled a conversation we had had some time ago in the diner and smiled. “I was lucky enough to have them find me.”

“Either way this is cool,” he said with a grin.

“You guys can totally own skate festivals around the country,” Ivy gave her opinion from Adam’s other side. “Adam can be the skate champ and you can play the show. It’ll be epic. I can be your touring groupie.”

“What about me?” Mikey wanted to know.

“There will be more than enough room for both of you,” Adam assured them as we turned onto the garden path and found everyone else waiting for us in the garage.

It was a full house with everyone’s other halves present. There was barely enough room for everyone, but we somehow made it work.

“I’m glad to see you here,” Frank said, approaching me. “I guess I managed to talk some sense into you the other night.”

I stuck my tongue out at him. “Whatever. I made a commitment to the band and it’s time that I stick to it.”

“Good.” He turned away from me and sat down on the armrest of the couch next to where Lisa was sitting.

Everything was so strangely normal. I guess I expected Frank to still be in a mood, but he was simply the kid who had become my best friend. I didn’t know what they were talking about, but at one point Frank brought his hand up and pinched her cheek in a cute little gesture.

“I suck at instruments too. The only thing I’m actually good at is art.” It was Ivy’s voice and she was talking to my brother and Adam. “Not that I’m complaining. I’m totally going to be a better artist than Gerard one day.”

“You wish,” I playfully responded.

“I can teach you to play the bass if you wanted to. It’s really not that hard,” Mikey offered.

“Then you can be better than him too,” Adam laughed. “I’ll be the only person you can’t beat.”

“Yeah yeah, come on.” I laughed and flung an arm around his neck, pulling him over to where the twins and Bob were talking.

We practiced for nearly three hours before finally deciding that we had done enough for one day. Besides, our audience was becoming restless. None of them had planned to be sitting there that long. They probably ran out of things to talk about anyway.

“You guys work together so well,” Adam commented. “I would have lost it by now with so many different ideas and opinions.”

“This was them playing nice,” Lisa informed him. “I’ve seen them really fight it out. It gets messy sometimes.”

I smiled at her and turned my attention to Adam. “Things ran smoothly today. Tomorrow might well be a completely different story. We’re probably still running on high after the gig.”

“Okay, we have a lot of souls here. You know what that means.” Scary happily clapped her hands together before running off in search of a bottle.

“Do they ever do anything else?” I heard myself asking, because this was ridiculous by any standards. I hated this game, because it never ended well.

Frank dropped the towel he had been using to wipe the sweat from his face and pulled Lisa to her feet just as Scary returned.

“Everyone gather around.”

“We’re heading out,” Frank told her with Lisa by his side. My head swiftly turned in his direction, surprised by his words, because Frank usually lived for this game.

“Uh, no, you’re not.” Scary said definitely.

“This game is kind of getting old,” he replied.

“That’s the point. We have fresh blood tonight,” she argued, pointing at Mikey and Adam.

Frank started in the direction of the door. “I’m not in the mood.” He stopped at the door and turned back to face her again. “Besides I can already tell you what’s going to happen. I’m going to end up shoved into a closet with Lisa and Gerard respectively. I would rather be someplace where I can make out with my girl indefinitely and Gerard and I are friends now. I don’t want it to be awkward.”

That was news to me. He never seemed to care about any of that before.

“Since when do you care about that?” Scary spoke my mind. “You’ve kissed Bob.”

All eyes turned to the parties in question. Bob was as red as a tomato and Frank ducked his head embarrassed. Clearly Bob had done me a favor that time we had been stuck together.

“I guess I’m growing up. See you all later.” With that he and Lisa disappeared out the door, leaving the rest of us with a very annoyed Scary.

“I knew it!” she exclaimed. “It’s that silly little girl’s fault. She’s broken him.”

“Who? Lisa?” her sister questioned.

“Yes Lisa! She’s changed him into this… this new person.”

“I thought you liked her?”

“Are you kidding me? I never really cared much for her, but I wasn’t exactly going to tell him that to his face,” Scary stated vehemently. “She’s stealing him from us and she’s a bad influence. Since when does Frank not want to play Seven Minutes in Heaven? It’s ridiculous.”

“That’s hardly fair,” Bob gave his opinion. “It’s not like she told him not to. In fact, she’s played with us every time she happened to be here.”

“Twice! The first time she met Frank and the second time there had only been a handful of people.” She refused to let up.

“It makes sense now,” Mikey quietly said to me and I leaned closer for him to explain what he was talking about. “It’s not your fault that you’re infatuated with Frank. He’s not even here and everyone’s fighting over him. It’s like natural instinct.” He straightened back up and said loudly, “I’d still like to play.”

“Seriously?” It was my incredulous voice.

“The last time I played this silly game I was thirteen. It can only get better right,” he said. “At least now we all know what we’re doing.”

“And you’re hoping that you’ll be lucky enough to get stuck with Scarlet,” I teased.

“No, I’m not,” he muttered, walking away from me, but his red ears gave him away and I couldn’t help laughing at how adorable my little brother was crushing on someone.

Since Frank wasn’t there, I felt a lot more enthusiastic about the game. I didn’t have to dread every time he reached out for the bottle, because he wasn’t there. Worst case scenario, I ended up in a closet with Scary.

Mikey was so eager that he went first and his first hookup was Caitlyn. Wrong twin, Brother. That didn’t stop the smug look on his face when they returned. It was kind of funny. A hand waved in front of my face and I turned to Adam.

“You’re the chosen one.”

Indeed, I looked down and found the bottle pointing at me. I had forgotten who was next until my eyes landed on Ivy. She shrugged and got to her feet, leading the way. We stood face to face in the small space after Ivy set her timer. We simply watched each other for a long time, because quite frankly, it was awkward. Not completely bad, but awkward nonetheless. Maybe if I had known that she was nothing more than a friend, it would have been different, but I knew she liked me as more and that was what complicated things.

“I’m curious, what did you and Frank do when you were in here?”

My eyebrows shot up in surprise. Did she seriously want to know?

“You’re right,” she waved her hands around. “I don’t want to know. It’s just… how good could it possibly have been?” She laughed.

I smirked and wiggled my eyebrows at her, not saying anything. She covered her face in embarrassment.

“Gross. Now I’m in here with you.”

“It’s not like you haven’t kissed me before,” I said teasingly.

Ivy playfully kicked the side of my leg. “Shut up! That was a moment of weakness, okay? A girl can dream that she would kiss a guy and he would magical turn straight and be with her forever and ever,” she said laughingly.

“Oh, so that’s what it was?”

She stuck her tongue out at me. “They should rather have put Adam in here with you. Give your love life some spark.”

“Excuse me. Adam and I don’t need a closet to ignite a spark.”

Ivy grinned broadly, proudly even I daresay. “It makes sense. He was checking you out from the moment you guys met.”

“He did, didn’t he?”

“Yes, with his Ben 10 band aids. He just had to be the hero.” She laughed again. “It was actually very adorable. You both are.”

The timer went off loudly, cutting our conversation short.

“If I never ever play this game again, it will be too soon,” I stated. “But if this is going to be the last time, I might as well end it on a high note.” I took her face in my hands and pulled her lips to mine, keeping her there for a few seconds before hugging her tightly. “Stay who you are, Ivaine, because who you are is awesome.”

“Thank you.” She sighed deeply against my chest.

*

It was late when I finally got to bed. The night had been fun. Adam and I got our seven minutes in heaven and we made good use of it. I smiled at the memory. I was definitely lucky to have him. My phone notified me that I had a message. It was a voice message.

“Hey, Gerard it’s Frank. We didn’t really talk earlier and I felt like you should know that I’m not mad at you. Tonight was simply…simple. I didn’t want you to think that there was still issues between us, because the isn’t. I’ve thought about it and I think I’ve figured it out.” I fell down on my bed with the phone still pressed to my ear. Frank’s voice continued to speak on the other end.

“For the longest time I thought that all of this was my fault. I’m the younger one and obviously then the one who acts like a child, but that’s not true. I never lied about my intentions. I’ve been clear from the start. Nothing can ever happen between us. You’re the one who always got your hopes up for every little thing. It’s not fair that all of that came down on my shoulders. I know I’m not blameless in all of this, but I’m not the bad guy. You keep putting yourself in a position to get hurt and you avoid things. Instead of talking to me about how you feel or really just talking to anyone, you instead avoid everyone and suffer through it alone which only makes it that much worse. You don’t deal with your problems. That’s your biggest problem. That’s why you skipped out on band practices and why I don’t see you for days on end. You need to grow up and learn to deal with reality. For your sake and Adam’s. I still want to knock him on his ass,” he chuckled. “But like Lisa he deserves better. On that note, I still want us to be friends. It would be best if we left all this awkward nonsense behind though, don’t you agree? I know, it’s easier said than done. I believe we can do it though. So yeah, that was all I had to say. I look forward to seeing you again tomorrow and hopefully it will be great. Anyway, goodnight.” The message ended there and I lay there for a long time processing his words. Something had definitely changed. He was so mature now, aside from the fact that he couldn’t say any of this to me personally. All of that happened in less than twenty four hours. I clearly missed something somewhere. This was a good thing though. Now I could focus on my relationship and forget about everything else.

I put my phone away and turned the light off. It took a long time, but it seemed like Frank and I were finally going to be in a good place.


End file.
